Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker

I didn’t like The Last Jedi. Not because of the narrative or any risks taken by the director, but the fact that the film treated its villains with such a lack of respect that the supposedly diabolical First Order looked like it was run at a bunch of buffoons, especially General Hux. When the evil force is one big joke, how are we supposed to take the threat they pose seriously? There were, of course other flaws but the main problem was the lack of threat posed by The First Order. 

Black Christmas

This year’s Black Christmas is the second remake of the original film from 1974. Where the 1974 original film used the slasher blueprint effectivly, long before John Carpenter’s Halloween, the 2006 remake was pretty forgettable and generic slasher flick. The 2019 is a different beast, it tries to step away from the generic slasher and bring in a more modern take by dealing with topical themes of sexism, assault and female empowerment. 

Knives Out

 Many of the Poirot movies always end up with him, played by a Brit with an exaggerated French-Belgian accent (think David Suchet and Peter Urnistov), magically reaching his eureka moment and solving the most impossible of crimes. A strangely cherished childhood memory is one where, on a wet, rainy day in Wales, I watched Evil Under the Sun on ITV and the image of a man in black speedos is implanted in my memory that it’s the only thing I really remember. about the film. 

Ford Vs Ferarri

 For the uninitiated, Le Mans is a pretty big deal. It makes up one of the races you have to win to earn the Triple Crown of Motorsport (Monaco Grand Prix and Indy 500 make up the other two) of which only one driver, Graham Hill, has ever won. The film is centred around the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, focusing on Ford’s on track and off-track battle with super car company Ferrari (who had previously won the past five races at Le Mans). In a bid to put a halt to the fledging sales, Ford decide to bring in Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) to help them build a car that will beat Ferrari at Le Mans and he knows just the guy who could win it for them, only problem is this guy, Ken Miles (Christian Bale), isn’t Ford material. 

Midway

The Pacific War has been popular in America cinema since the day the Japanese air force attacked Pearl Harbor. This ‘sneak attack’ on a date that will ‘live in infamy’ was instantly a sore point for America so the depiction of the Japanese army in 40s films like Wake Island and many others were frequently vile, racist, and lacking in the depth that German characters were depicted with in films like The Mortal Storm. Things have gotten better but for every Letters from Iwo Jima you’d get a few Hacksaw Ridges, but overall the depiction is far better.

Rambo: Last Blood

Politics influence movies and movies influence politics. It has always been a fact. Even the first Rambo was a politically driven film which examined America’s attitude towards Vietnam veterans returning home, abandoned by their government and vilified by certain quarters for being ‘child killers’. Rambo: First Blood came at a time America began to really look at its involvement in Vietnam, films like The Deer Hunter, Platoon and Rambo looked at the American psyche following its loss of innocence as images of war were beamed into every living room with a TV.

Gemini Man

Ang Lee is trying to change the way we view movies. His previous effort Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk was, in part, shot at 120FPS. His latest effort, Gemini Man, was entirely shot at 120FPS. The problem with this is only a select few cinemas have the capability to screen films at this framerate. This means only a select few people saw the film as it was intended by the director. Those who did see the film at 120FPS complained that it made the film loo ‘fake’ or ‘soap operary’. Whilst I didn’t watch it at 120FPS I can imagine it looked like watching films/TV on my uncle’s massive HD TV for the first time where it looked like everything was filmed in front of a really bad green screen.

The Irishman

 When you’ve left your own personal stamp on an entire genre, you are entitled to say whatever you damn well please without some Marvel fanboy dismissing your entire filmography because you didn’t like a film they like. Not that I agree entirely with his comments, but the fact Martin Scorsese has cemented his place in movie history by influencing an entire genre, Scorsese’s opinions should be respected.

Doctor Sleep

Stephen King’s distain for Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film is pretty legendary, he much prefers the version that came out in 1997 as it was much closer to the book. He is, however, very much in the minority as Kubrick’s version only gets more and more popular with age. Such is the popularity of the 1980 film, director Mike Flanagan makes a film that’s an adaptation of the king novel and a sequel to the 1980 film. 

Judy

Names like Judy Garland, Drew Barrymore and Linsey Lohan are ones you’ll see on lists about people destroyed by the Hollywood system and the odious people in it. It was terrible in the thirties and it has been terrible throughout the entirety of the 20th century, continuing on into the 21st century. Garland never really escaped the trauma of young stardom and this film attempts to tell the tale of her final years of her life before her untimely death at 47.

Terminator: Dark Fate

The Terminator franchise certainly has its ups and downs. At one end of the scale you have The Terminator and The Terminator: Judgement Day and at the other end of the scale you Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys with Terminator 3 slap bang in the middle. So, the question on everyone (who cared) lips was what fate would befall Terminator: Dark Fate?

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Sharon Tate has been immortalised in countless movies. Sadly, however, they have almost always been about her death. The death shocked Hollywood but at the same time they looked to exploit it, and have been doing so for years with the most recent guilty party being the odious Wolves at the Door.

Once Upon a Time in America

 

Once Upon a Time in America is a film famous for its production issues as it is for its quality. Originally intended to be a six hour epic charting the lives of four Jewish gangsters, the American production company cut down Leone’s film to 139 minutes, and edited the film so the story was told chronologically. In contrast, the European cut was closer to four hours. Almost 100 minutes longer than the American version. As a result, the American cut was a failure whilst the European film was celebrated as a masterpiece.

Midsommar

A couple of times a year a horror film will become a critical hit with many of these critics trying to distance the film from the horror genre as horror is all boobs, blood and guts, and can never actually be about something because horror *scoff* doesn’t have depth. These snobs exist (even Mark Kermode, who loves horror, said it isn’t a horror film) because the genre is still seen as one level above porn, despite the fact that horror has proven to be brave and instrumental when tackling different themes.

The Dead Don't Die

Set in a real nice place, a small American town is noticing strange going-ons with the daylight hours being somewhat out of synch with the time of day. The TV says that the Earth has been knocked off its axis. This causes lots of issues, one of which brings the dead back to life. A small American town, and its deadpan residents, try to survive the carnage around them.

Men in Black: International

A family of three encounter a strange alien like creature in the kitchen of their family home in Brooklyn. The Men in Black shortly arrive on the scene to Neuralyse the family, but little do they know that the little girl was not asleep as her parents had said. She remembers every detail and has even met the alien. She would spend the next 20 (circa) years trying to find that mysterious agency. Eventually she does, and they are so impressed by her resourcefulness and determination they hire her and send her off to London where it’s soon discovered that there is a mole in the agency.

Booksmart

I’ve never really liked high school movies, mostly because they never really reflected my experiences of high school. They were either too party fuelled or too traumatic. There’s seemed to be very little that reflected a story of someone who sort of ghosted through high school, neither revered or abused nor interested in the things that most teens are. The issue mostly lies in the fact it depicts an unrealistic life, suggesting that life should have been like that and you’ve wasted the opportunity if it wasn’t.

Films like Eighth Grade are a step in the right direction with grounded realism about high school life, it’s almost staggering that this was written a man in his 30s. Booksmart is closer to Superbad than it is Eighth Grade as it combines the grounded realism of a solid, engaging female friendship with the exaggerated depiction of high school life and the people who are going through it with you. The supporting characters and their antics are by far a step apart from the high school life I lived (perhaps its changed since I last went). All the supporting characters are exaggerated and entertaining characterisations of the people you may find in high school, from the drama student to the more sexually experienced. It’s all fun to watch, but sometimes they don’t feel like real people, but the film manages to make some of their stories work.

Of course, they were never really the focus as it was very much on the central paring of Molly and Amy (played by Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever respectively) whose friendship is the central core of the movie. Their friendship is engaging and Beanie Feldstein’s and Kaitlyn Dever’s chemistry is wonderful as they talk openly about a lot of women’s issues (and frank talk of masturbation), making this female perspective (Booksmart is directed by Olivia Wilde) of a male dominated genre rather refreshing.

Booksmart is a film about not judging on appearance, just because a girl likes giving hand jobs doesn’t mean she won’t get into Harvard (admittedly her fifth choice). Other students, seemingly slackers, have also found themselves at prestigious schools or have found employment at Google. All well and good, but the film never looks at the true reason why these wealthy, attractive teens almost have the chance to hand pick their university. Privilege is the true reason. Students in a school in inner city LA aren’t going to get the same opportunities and for film that is supposedly ‘woke’ this is a blind spot and a wasted opportunity that’s being ignored by others who would normally be up in arms about this injustice.

Granted we have two characters (the so called 1%) who use their wealth to buy people’s friendship but for every other student the movie is so out of kilter with the current public discourse it just feels out of touch with the current climate on the issues. The kids at this fictional high school didn’t work hard like some, more impoverished students would have to have done as it was most likely handed to them on a silver platter (likely by a maid or butler or something) but the film is too busy stressing appearances and person’s personality isn’t always an indicator of intelligence to focus on how lucky each of these students are.

Credit to Olivia Wilde as her directing debut has clearly been a rousing success with the film clearly finding a passionate fan base. The mix between realism and the fantastical (the stop motion animation scene) shows a director with vision even if the latter didn’t appeal to me (I stopped finding genital free action figures funny when I was 7). However, the film’s mix between relatability and impossible fantasy makes it feel indecisive at how it wants to come across. Recent films like Eighth Grade and Lady Bird have had left far more of an impression on me.

3/5

Maradona

Diego Maradona marks the second time that director Asif Kapadia looks at a volatile South American sportsman who dominated the sport they dedicated their lives to. With football being a bigger sport, Maradona is perhaps a bigger name than Senna. His status as one of the best players in the sport’s history is felt in the city of Naples where he was seen as a king or perhaps even a god. He was an incredibly gifted footballer whose immense talent helped Napoli win their first Italian league title. The film captures the ecstasy and importance this league title and Maradona gave to the city of Naples. The passion of the supporters may seem crazy and extreme to the uninitiated, but football has that power in cities with strong working class roots.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

A mission to rescue a crippled space shuttle goes horribly wrong when Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) becomes infected by a cosmic force and becomes the most powerful mutant on Earth. Meanwhile, an alien race lands on Earth looking to use Jean’s newly found power to conquer the planet.

Rocketman

If there’s one thing the movie industry is good at it is noticing a slight trend and then trying to capitalise on it. Even though an Elton John biopic has been in the works for years, the success of A Star is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody made for promising signs of it being a hit. Bohemian Rhapsody, despite its success, certainly has its very vocal detractors who despised the director and hated how the film depicted Freddie’s sexuality by either straightwashing him or depicting it in a way people found grossly offensive. It seems unlikely similar criticism would be aimed at Rocketman because it is one of the very few mainstream Hollywood productions to feature gay sex. Rocketman’s higher rating allow it to be more explicit allowing it to provide at least some of the action that alluded the Queen biopic.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

There’s a morbid and macabre aspect of humanity that enjoys true crime, particularly that of serial killers. You can probably name quite a few from John Dillinger to Harold Shipman, but almost everyone in America, and most parts of the Western world, can name Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy’s name has found itself back into the public consciousness following two highly publicised films/documentaries on Netflix about the notorious serial killer.

End Game (Spoilers)

 

SPOILERS

How do you review a film that is so dependent on one having seen (at least most of) the previous films of the MCU? How do you review a film that is so dependent upon you loving and caring for characters for you to get the most from it? All films are like this, but with Endgame, the most highly anticipated movie this century, this is so much more pronounced. There’s no point going into Endgame as a newbie. We have spent ten years (more for comic book fans) getting to know these characters and they mean a great deal to a lot of people. Stifled sobs were heard frequently throughout the screening, but none were coming from me. Despite seeing all but one of the MCU I still never felt love for the universe.

Thursday Movie Picks #251: True Crime

 

People love true crime, particularly women. Maybe it’s because they empathise with the victim (which are mostly women) or they prepare themselves for the worst (considering woman are most likely to be victims of serial killers). Maybe some women do empathise with the victim, but I still feel there is that element of excitement that draws women to the genre. Like so:

These types of films have been subjected to criticism for glorifying the killer and neglecting the victims. This leads me on to the next two films.

The Shining

You can draw so many theories from The Shining that you can write a book about them. You can certainly make a documentary even if some the theories are so crackpot that even Alex Jones would be sceptical about them. The tiniest detail from the carpet patterns to the Apollo 11 jumper Danny wears is dissected to an inch of its life and provided as evidence for their own personal and overreaching theory.

Shazam

Between DC and Marvel the latter has always come out on top as DC’s darker more brooding tone was successful with a great filmmaker like Christopher Nolan behind the camera, but the other films like Suicide Squad, Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman were not successful in trading off humour for a more darker tone. It worked well with Wonder Woman because of Patty Jenkins deft touch but with Aquaman and Shazam there has been a much more apparent slide towards humour than a dark atmosphere and Shazam is DC’s most light-hearted film of recent times.

White Crow

 

Ralph Fiennes foray into direction started with a modernized adaption of a lesser known Shakespeare play, Coriolanus. In between this and his latest effort (White Crow) was a rather unextraordinary effort about Charles Dickens, but his latest effort is notable for Fiennes working in another language, albeit one he speaks fairly well. Still I can’t think of many British directors that make films in a different language.

Robin Hood

The film stars off by saying it doesn’t want to bore us with the history. This is a sure-fire guarantee way to piss me off as I quite like history so telling me the history of how English royalty and lordships abused the lower classes in 12-14th century England would be interesting to me. I think saying something like this gets the film off to a bad start because it shows that the filmmakers don’t have a passion for the history of the legend or the time it is set. It doesn’t feel like a project that isn’t backed by love.

Us

The Kane family arrive at their little holiday home which is within spitting distance of the beach where Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) experienced a traumatic event that would plague her for the rest of her life. The family do not know of this trauma and spend the day on the very same beach. Shortly after Jason, briefly, disappears the family return home only to experience a restless and traumatic night.

Everybody Knows

 

Sharing a name with a classic Leonard Cohen song, Asghar Farhadi’s film is about dark secrets that aren’t that much of secret. There’s always gossip in the local town as the locals know more than the family thinks they know and much like the Cohen song the uncomfortable truths like ‘Old Black Joe’s still picking cotton’ are ones that everybody knows. About to arrive in this den where everyone knows of the unspoken secret is Laura (Penélope Cruz) who arrives in Spain to attend a wedding with her son and daughter (the latter of whom is kidnapped).

Captain Marvel

Right up to its release Captain Marvel garnered lots of media attention. Some of it focused on the negative anticipation as trolls flooded the Rotten Tomatoes site with defamatory comments about Brie Larsen’s statements on the lack of diversity in film journalism. This of course blew up in the media which, whilst denouncing it, just had the inevitable effect of drawing even more attention to it. Captain Marvel isn’t of course the first superhero movie of the recent superhero movie craze that features a woman as the main protagonist (which was Wonder Woman) but it is the first Marvel movie. This, of course, will be a cause of celebration for some.

Thursday Movie Picks #243: Cold War

There's more to the Cold War than one would have imagined. There's plenty of different narratives, other than the political, from espionage (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold) to ideological battles (any Red Scare films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers) from the space race (First Man) to sports (Rocky IV). But none is more prevalent than the threat of nuclear warfare as two powerful nations, with an arsenal strong enough to destroy the world hundreds of times over, square off with the World at stake. Perhaps this is why the Cold War makes fascinating cinema, tension comes from incredibly high stakes and in these films the stakes have never been higher.

The inventor of this weekly theme meme is - http://wanderingthroughtheshelves.blogspot.com/.

Best Picture: 2019 Nominees Rundown

It’s Oscar night and just before the night kicks off I thought I'd provide a run time of the eight films in the running for the biggest award in the industry.

Note that just because a film is higher in the list doesn’t mean I think it’s a better film, I just preferred it. Anyway – here’s the list.

If Beale Street Could Talk

Every black American is born in Beale Street. It’s the birth place of Louis Armstrong and jazz. If Beale Street could talk it would have some remarkable tales to tell. There would be tales of success, but the tales of love, racial prejudice and injustice would be the narratives that would be the most profound. The many examples of innocent black men incarnated for their crimes is numerous and forms the back bone of Barry Jenkins’ remarkable second feature. Based on James Baldwin’s novel, If Beale Street Could Talk is about Tish and her husband’s family desperate attempts to secure the release of her husband (and father of her child) from prison for a crime he did not commit.

Alita

Set in the dystopian future, Dr Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) finds the remains of a cyborg. He uses the remains to revive the cyborg, giving it the name Alita (Rosa Sazalar). However, Alita is not ordinary cyborg as she’s programmed with a fighting style long since assumed dead. Learning this, Alita goes on a quest to find her true identity. 

Thursday Movie Picks #239: Revenge

The topic of revenge has been in the news this week thanks to Liam Neeson. Liam Neeson was dogged in some controversy in the most sanctimonious place in the world, Twitter. Anyway, they were angry about some comments that were made where he stated he wanted to kill a black person following the rape of a friend. These are clearly feelings of a guy was a racist, but the words of regret are words of man who knew he was wrong. This doesn’t mean we should sweep it under the carpet as these are issues the black people still face today. The main issue with Neeson’s comments his he didn’t acknowledge that.

Vice

Over the last 10 years 7 of the 10 male winners for Best Actor were playing real people (only two for women). It’s clear that the Academy love a big performance of a big character, however this begs the question whether this type of performance is acting or is it merely an impersonation? The answer is acting, but there’s just different levels. At one end of the scale we have Gary Oldman playing Churchill whose just Gary Oldman playing Churchill and at the other end of the scale we have Natalie Portman who plays Jackie Kennedy but gives a performance of such depth and skill she is able to making us believe we are watching Jackie Kennedy.

Blindspot 2019: The Battle of Algiers

Revolutions are rarely bloodless, in fact when they are it’s a notable occasion (think the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and German Revolution of 1989) but throughout history from the American Revolution to The Arab Spring violence has always been a major part of a civilian uprising. The reason for this is that violence is sometimes, seemingly, the only way to get governments to listen and even if there are instances where blood was not shed, these are special cases.

Beautiful Boy

 

A lot has been said about the subjects of Beautiful Boy and how it’s a perfect example of white privilege. While I understand the point these critics are trying to make, it is possible to comment on this without coming off an insensitive arsehole who decides empathy is only worthy for people without hefty wallets. A quote from a critic in The Guardian (shocker) does make the point that the wealthy have access to expensive treatments, but it’s just lacking in empathy.

Thursday Movie Picks #237: Movies You Walked Out On

This week’s theme comes from the mind of Brittani Burham from Rambling Film which, contrary to the name of her blog, is full of concise film reviews (among other stuff) that is certainly worth checking out. 

This week’s theme is movies you have walked out of. As I’ve only ever walked out of one movie (I’m getting my bloody money’s worth) I will populate this list with movies I didn’t finish (and never will).

Also make sure to check out http://wanderingthroughtheshelves.blogspot.com/ as without him/her we'd never even have this blogging meme.

Thursday Movie Picks #236: 2018 Movies

At the time of writing I have seen 112 movies from 2018, but because of the way movie releasing works I am still yet to be given the opportunity to see some of the year’s most highly regarded films such as Burning and If Beale Street Could Talk.

Still here are three picks that are worthy of more attention. Also don't forget to visit - http://wanderingthroughtheshelves.blogspot.com/

The Favourite

The Favourite has been a favourite amongst the critics but the disparity between the masses and critics is pretty telling (one person on google pretty much admitted to being closed minded and simple by saying they shouldn’t force arty stuff on the masses). They were disappointed at not getting exactly what they wanted, but anyone with any knowledge of the films of Yorgos Lanthimos will expect absurdist humour rather.

One Cut of the Dead

 

One Cut of the Dead was the most lauded film of Frightfest 2018. Everyone was raving about it almost as though a virus has been passed from person to person that meant they were deeply in love with the film. For about thirty minutes I was completed stumped as to why people regarded this in any positive light. The acting was stilled and awkward, the dialogue awful and the makeup effects lame and cheap looking. The one cut technique was brave, but it seemed too much for an inexperienced crew.