Films round-up
Jul. 8th, 2021 08:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rich_jackoCinemas are back - yay! It's been far too long (8 months!) since I last did one of these, but I've been making up for lost time since they reopened on 17th May:
The Human Voice - A short (30-minute) film based loosely on a 1930s stage play. Tilda Swinton is pretty much the only performer (besides a dog), and this is more-or-less a continuous monologue of her speaking on the phone to the husband who abandoned her, as she wanders through her flat, going slowly mad. Is her husband even on the other end of the phone? She lies, she fantasises, she entreats, she rants, she does reckless things. It's all slightly bonkers, and the fact we see her apartment is shot in a stage set adds to the surreal feeling. Be honest, who doesn't want to see Tilda Swinton being melodramatically bonkers for half an hour uninterrupted? The cinema version was followed by an entertaining interview of Tilda Swinton and director Pedro Almodóvar by Mark Kermode.
Nomadland - This year's big Oscar-winner. Frances McDormand stars as Fern, who lives in her van, drifting from place to place, since her husband died. Fern is largely estranged from her family, but makes friends in the places she settles briefly, and has ongoing friendships with other nomads she meets again and again along her way (many of whom are played by real-life nomads). There's not much of a story to this film, but it's an interesting insight into a different way of living, with all of its joys, freedom, trials and tribulations. There are also some beautiful vistas, which is why its star implored audiences to watch it on the big screen. Best Picture? Maybe not, but still well worth checking out.
Judas and the Black Messiah - Set in 1968 and based on a true story, this is a film full of energy and political outrage, still all-too-relevant today. Con artist Bill O'Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) is coerced by FBI agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) to spy on black rights activist Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), a Black Panther Party leader and thorn in the side of the Bureau's white supremacy agenda. What follows is a journey through the personal and political struggles of the two black men, as O'Neal wrestles between his sympathy with Hampton's ideals and protecting his own skin, while Hampton juggles his cause, his personal life and the hostility of the state levied against him. Hampton's family collaborated on the film, which is bookended with real life archive footage. Recommended.
A Quiet Place: Part II - The original A Quiet Place is one of my favourite horror films of recent years, with a great (yet absurdly simple) concept, strong performances, lots of tension and more than a shade of Aliens. The sequel is... more of the same. It lacks the freshness of the first installment, but the quality is still there. Emily Blunt continues to be a strong lead, trying to get her family to a new place of safety. Millicent Simmonds puts in another striking performance as her deaf daughter. Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou also join the cast this time. An action-packed flashback opening gives way to drama filled with suspense - How close are the monsters? Who can you trust? It's tightly plotted, coming in at just 97 minutes, but with an ending left wide open for Part III. That may be no bad thing...
Raya and the Last Dragon - Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) is not your typical Disney princess - a lone warrior, travelling a post-apocalyptic wasteland, on a desperate quest to restore a lost kingdom. Sisu (Awkwafina) is not your typical dragon - ditzy, eager to make friends and an excellent swimmer. Together, this pairing star in the best Disney cartoon in ages, a gorgeous-looking epic, based (very loosely) on South East Asian folk tales, with a strong (yet unshmaltzy) message about different peoples coming together and learning to trust one another. It's packed with action, humour and heart, and doesn't just pass the Bechdel Test with flying colours, but reverses it (I think) by never having two male characters talk about something other than a female character. A (dragon) breath of fresh air.
Nobody - From the makers of John Wick, this is similar fare. You know you shouldn't mess with John Wick's dog. A similar warning should be attached to taking Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk)'s daughter's stuff, or upsetting him while he's on the bus. Because while Bob appears to be a meek nobody, he's actually a retired, highly-trained assassin. Before long, events around Hutch have escalated to the point where his family are in hiding and he's taking on the Russian mafia. Cue an avalanche of brutal, over-the-top, blackly comic violence over an impressively tight 87-minute running time. Christopher Lloyd has an excellent small role as Hutch's father. If you want an idea of the type of film this is, you can get it from the exchange: "You brought a lot of shotguns." "You brought a lot of Russians."
Luca - Pixar's latest is a light-hearted romp set in a small seaside town in 1950s Italy. Luca and Alberto are two runaway boys, who team up with a local girl to enter the town triathlon (swimming, cycling, pasta-eating), beat a local bully and win enough money to fulfil their dream of owning a Vespa. A small snag being that the boys are secretly sea monsters, and getting wet causes them to revert to their true selves. And the locals fear and hunt sea monsters. This literal fish-out-of-water story isn't one of Pixar's most ground-breaking or memorable. It's a light-hearted coming-of-age tale (tail?) full of whimsy and old-fashioned charm, hardly a must-see but you won't regret watching it. It gets bonus points for including a scene in which two dorky kids bond over a book about space. Also, stay for the credit cookie, yesss...
The Reason I Jump - Based on the book of the same name (subtitled "One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism") by Naoki Higashida, who is autistic and non-verbal, this is a documentary following several young people from across the world with similar conditions, interspersed with quotes from the book, interviews with family members, and occasional close-up shots to convey the sensory overload autistic people sometimes experience. It's a thought-provoking insight. It's astonishing to see people with such limited verbal skills express such complex thoughts and opinions, when given the ability to do so through charts, and will change the way you look at this type of disability. Of all the individual stories covered, that of a special needs school in Sierra Leone (where autism is still often seen as a sign of demonic possession) stuck with me the most.
Supernova - The first of two films on the trot about living with Alzheimer's, and the impact on those closest. The two are very different though. Supernova is a simple story about a couple facing up to loss - for Tusker (Stanley Tucci), the gradual loss of his mental faculties; for Sam (Colin Firth), the impending loss of his partner. Although a visit to Sam's family features for part of the film, it's largely an extended break-up conversation between the two leads, with Tusker not wanting to be a burden but Sam determined to see things through to the end. It's shot as a road trip, as the two revisit past haunts, but it feels more like an intimate stage play, low-key and poignant.
The Father, on the other hand, is actually based on a stage play, but is a far more complex affair. It's a look at Alzheimer's from the inside, which possibly makes it one of the scariest films ever made. Anthony Hopkins plays, er, Anthony, a man struggling to remember where he is, paranoid about frequently misplaced items, unable to always match faces to the right people, or recall events in the right order. We see his life as he sees it, in a tangle of confusion which only gradually comes to make a tragic sort of sense. Olivia Coleman plays his daughter, Anne, with Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell and Olivia Williams rounding out a strong cast in roles which aren't often what they first seem. The Father has been rightly heaped with acting plaudits, but it's the cleverness with which playright Florian Zeller unfolds and refolds the narrative which makes this film stick with you.
Black Widow - I've been missing my regular dose of Marvel IMAX action. The TV shows have helped ease the wait, but they're nothing next to big screen, big action, big budget spectacle like this. Even without the pandemic, a solo outing for Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) was long overdue. Not entirely solo though, as her whole family (Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Rachel Weisz) are along for the ride. The chemistry between these characters is great and makes the film a lot of fun, despite its pretty dark subject matter. An intriguing flashback intro leads into a pitch-perfect opening title sequence, before unfolding into a globe-trotting mission involving spies, mind control, what went down that time in Budapest, lots of running away from explosions, and a supervillain (Ray Winstone) who clearly hasn't read the Evil Overlord's Handbook. This is a superb Bond-esque espionage thriller (there's even a clip from Moonraker at one point), marred only by the perennial problem of far too much jerkycam. That's a small gripe when a film is as enjoyable as this. Welcome back to the cinema, Marvel.
The Human Voice - A short (30-minute) film based loosely on a 1930s stage play. Tilda Swinton is pretty much the only performer (besides a dog), and this is more-or-less a continuous monologue of her speaking on the phone to the husband who abandoned her, as she wanders through her flat, going slowly mad. Is her husband even on the other end of the phone? She lies, she fantasises, she entreats, she rants, she does reckless things. It's all slightly bonkers, and the fact we see her apartment is shot in a stage set adds to the surreal feeling. Be honest, who doesn't want to see Tilda Swinton being melodramatically bonkers for half an hour uninterrupted? The cinema version was followed by an entertaining interview of Tilda Swinton and director Pedro Almodóvar by Mark Kermode.
Nomadland - This year's big Oscar-winner. Frances McDormand stars as Fern, who lives in her van, drifting from place to place, since her husband died. Fern is largely estranged from her family, but makes friends in the places she settles briefly, and has ongoing friendships with other nomads she meets again and again along her way (many of whom are played by real-life nomads). There's not much of a story to this film, but it's an interesting insight into a different way of living, with all of its joys, freedom, trials and tribulations. There are also some beautiful vistas, which is why its star implored audiences to watch it on the big screen. Best Picture? Maybe not, but still well worth checking out.
Judas and the Black Messiah - Set in 1968 and based on a true story, this is a film full of energy and political outrage, still all-too-relevant today. Con artist Bill O'Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) is coerced by FBI agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) to spy on black rights activist Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), a Black Panther Party leader and thorn in the side of the Bureau's white supremacy agenda. What follows is a journey through the personal and political struggles of the two black men, as O'Neal wrestles between his sympathy with Hampton's ideals and protecting his own skin, while Hampton juggles his cause, his personal life and the hostility of the state levied against him. Hampton's family collaborated on the film, which is bookended with real life archive footage. Recommended.
A Quiet Place: Part II - The original A Quiet Place is one of my favourite horror films of recent years, with a great (yet absurdly simple) concept, strong performances, lots of tension and more than a shade of Aliens. The sequel is... more of the same. It lacks the freshness of the first installment, but the quality is still there. Emily Blunt continues to be a strong lead, trying to get her family to a new place of safety. Millicent Simmonds puts in another striking performance as her deaf daughter. Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou also join the cast this time. An action-packed flashback opening gives way to drama filled with suspense - How close are the monsters? Who can you trust? It's tightly plotted, coming in at just 97 minutes, but with an ending left wide open for Part III. That may be no bad thing...
Raya and the Last Dragon - Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) is not your typical Disney princess - a lone warrior, travelling a post-apocalyptic wasteland, on a desperate quest to restore a lost kingdom. Sisu (Awkwafina) is not your typical dragon - ditzy, eager to make friends and an excellent swimmer. Together, this pairing star in the best Disney cartoon in ages, a gorgeous-looking epic, based (very loosely) on South East Asian folk tales, with a strong (yet unshmaltzy) message about different peoples coming together and learning to trust one another. It's packed with action, humour and heart, and doesn't just pass the Bechdel Test with flying colours, but reverses it (I think) by never having two male characters talk about something other than a female character. A (dragon) breath of fresh air.
Nobody - From the makers of John Wick, this is similar fare. You know you shouldn't mess with John Wick's dog. A similar warning should be attached to taking Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk)'s daughter's stuff, or upsetting him while he's on the bus. Because while Bob appears to be a meek nobody, he's actually a retired, highly-trained assassin. Before long, events around Hutch have escalated to the point where his family are in hiding and he's taking on the Russian mafia. Cue an avalanche of brutal, over-the-top, blackly comic violence over an impressively tight 87-minute running time. Christopher Lloyd has an excellent small role as Hutch's father. If you want an idea of the type of film this is, you can get it from the exchange: "You brought a lot of shotguns." "You brought a lot of Russians."
Luca - Pixar's latest is a light-hearted romp set in a small seaside town in 1950s Italy. Luca and Alberto are two runaway boys, who team up with a local girl to enter the town triathlon (swimming, cycling, pasta-eating), beat a local bully and win enough money to fulfil their dream of owning a Vespa. A small snag being that the boys are secretly sea monsters, and getting wet causes them to revert to their true selves. And the locals fear and hunt sea monsters. This literal fish-out-of-water story isn't one of Pixar's most ground-breaking or memorable. It's a light-hearted coming-of-age tale (tail?) full of whimsy and old-fashioned charm, hardly a must-see but you won't regret watching it. It gets bonus points for including a scene in which two dorky kids bond over a book about space. Also, stay for the credit cookie, yesss...
The Reason I Jump - Based on the book of the same name (subtitled "One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism") by Naoki Higashida, who is autistic and non-verbal, this is a documentary following several young people from across the world with similar conditions, interspersed with quotes from the book, interviews with family members, and occasional close-up shots to convey the sensory overload autistic people sometimes experience. It's a thought-provoking insight. It's astonishing to see people with such limited verbal skills express such complex thoughts and opinions, when given the ability to do so through charts, and will change the way you look at this type of disability. Of all the individual stories covered, that of a special needs school in Sierra Leone (where autism is still often seen as a sign of demonic possession) stuck with me the most.
Supernova - The first of two films on the trot about living with Alzheimer's, and the impact on those closest. The two are very different though. Supernova is a simple story about a couple facing up to loss - for Tusker (Stanley Tucci), the gradual loss of his mental faculties; for Sam (Colin Firth), the impending loss of his partner. Although a visit to Sam's family features for part of the film, it's largely an extended break-up conversation between the two leads, with Tusker not wanting to be a burden but Sam determined to see things through to the end. It's shot as a road trip, as the two revisit past haunts, but it feels more like an intimate stage play, low-key and poignant.
The Father, on the other hand, is actually based on a stage play, but is a far more complex affair. It's a look at Alzheimer's from the inside, which possibly makes it one of the scariest films ever made. Anthony Hopkins plays, er, Anthony, a man struggling to remember where he is, paranoid about frequently misplaced items, unable to always match faces to the right people, or recall events in the right order. We see his life as he sees it, in a tangle of confusion which only gradually comes to make a tragic sort of sense. Olivia Coleman plays his daughter, Anne, with Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell and Olivia Williams rounding out a strong cast in roles which aren't often what they first seem. The Father has been rightly heaped with acting plaudits, but it's the cleverness with which playright Florian Zeller unfolds and refolds the narrative which makes this film stick with you.
Black Widow - I've been missing my regular dose of Marvel IMAX action. The TV shows have helped ease the wait, but they're nothing next to big screen, big action, big budget spectacle like this. Even without the pandemic, a solo outing for Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) was long overdue. Not entirely solo though, as her whole family (Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Rachel Weisz) are along for the ride. The chemistry between these characters is great and makes the film a lot of fun, despite its pretty dark subject matter. An intriguing flashback intro leads into a pitch-perfect opening title sequence, before unfolding into a globe-trotting mission involving spies, mind control, what went down that time in Budapest, lots of running away from explosions, and a supervillain (Ray Winstone) who clearly hasn't read the Evil Overlord's Handbook. This is a superb Bond-esque espionage thriller (there's even a clip from Moonraker at one point), marred only by the perennial problem of far too much jerkycam. That's a small gripe when a film is as enjoyable as this. Welcome back to the cinema, Marvel.
