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Films round-up
Apr. 22nd, 2018 09:15 amThe Shape of Water - I will happily watch anything Guillermo del Toro makes, and this sweet, crazy, spooky cross between The Little Mermaid, Creature From the Black Lagoon, and E.T. is one of his best. Sally Hawkins is captivating as Elisa, a mute cleaner who forms a bond with a mysterious creature being held captive in the secret government facility where she works. Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones and Michael Shannon round out an exceptional cast. There are some astonishing and original visual set-pieces, with a lot of underlying heart. This is a dark fairy tale in the style of The Devil's Backbone / Pan's Labyrinth, only this time (as del Toro has said) about the fears of adulthood rather than the fears of childhood. Other-worldly, gripping, romantic and unique, it deserves all the awards it has won.
Black Panther - Another film which deserves its hype is Marvel's 18th. Yes, it's great to finally have a Hollywood blockbuster where the main cast (led by Chadwick Boseman in the title role) are nearly all black, where the story is African-centric rather than US-centric (albeit in the made-up country of Wakanda), and which gives strong (and not just token) roles to its female characters. It's even better that this is treated as normal. But, diversity points aside, it's also a cracking good blockbuster. Okay, it follows the now-established Marvel origin movie template, so it's not going to win too many prizes for originality, but everything it does, it does really well. All of the characters, including the villains, are well-rounded and there's a lot going on. Plot-wise, it's a struggle for power and an object lesson in the responsible use of power. Action-wise, it's up there with the best.
I, Tonya - Now this is a bold film. Take the true life story of American Olympic figure skater, Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie), her abusive mother (Allison Janney) and, later, her abusive husband (Sebastian Stan), and the ill-fated plot to nobble rival skater, Nancy Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver). Now make it a disjointed mix of mockumentary interviews and flashbacks. Now make it a black comedy. Amazingly, it not only works, it works really well. The interviews bring you closer to the characters and the absurdity and humour knock a little of the nasty edge off their actions, but without undermining the film's power. Sometimes uncomfortable, but compellingly watchable throughout, you find yourself empathising with Tonya and even (against your better judgement) liking some of the more unpleasant characters too. The film doesn't exactly completely exonerate her, but the real life Tonya Harding has said it's mostly true. A good one if you're in the mood for something a bit different.
You Were Never Really Here - You'd think I'd have learned by now (especially after Phantom Thread) not to watch films just because they get rave reviews. A bearded, barely-recognisable Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe, a mercenary who helps track down missing kids and punish their kidnappers. There's a plot, in which he rescues the governor's daughter and gets drawn into a wider conspiracy, but writer/director Lynne Ramsey isn't really interested in that (and it shows). This is more a character study of Joe and what makes him do the things he does. Which is all very well, except that (spoiler alert) it never gets beyond "some bad things happened to him as a kid, so now he's a loner and he fights bad guys". Which makes him intense, but just not that interesting.
Pacific Rim: Uprising - To my shame, I've not seen the Guillermo del Toro original (though I have just picked it up on DVD), so I can't say how good a sequel it is. There's no sign of the del Toro magic here though. Watching giant robots smash each other is entertaining enough, and it's a million times better than certain Michael Bay efforts. It is, however, so overblown that there's often little sense of tangible danger, and it frequently feels like you're watching someone play a video game. It gets by mostly on the charm of its lead actors, John Boyega and Cailee Spaeney. They play, respectively, the reluctant son of a war hero and a determined teenage hacker, both of whom get sucked into a new conflict. It's fun in a Marvel way, but nothing outstanding.
Ready Player One - Now this, of course, is a film almost entirely about playing video games. Described (pretty accurately) as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets The Matrix", it's set in a dystopian future where the populace seeks refuge from their daily lives inside a virtual world, the OASIS. When its creator (Mark Rylance) dies, bequeathing control to whoever solves three challenges, teen gamers Parzival (Tye Sheridan) and Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) team up to win through ahead of the evil IOI corporation (headed up by the dastardly Ben Mendelsohn). It's a simpler, trimmed-down story compared with the book, but the main changes - making Art3mis a much more important character and replacing the 1970s video game challenges with more cinimatic ones) feel right for the screen. There's an underlying message about how we live our lives and interact with one another, but mostly this is Spielberg exercising his popcorn entertainment skills. Flowing seemlessly between the OASIS and the real world, and packed full of joyfully geeky tributes (Yay, Serenity!), it's a lot of fun. Definitely one to watch on the big screen though.
Isle of Dogs - Wes Anderson is a "Marmite" director. Whether you love or hate his works, Isle of Dogs will not change your opinion, as it's his most Wes Anderson-y film yet. The stop-motion animation has a charming, Wallace & Grommit style, home-made feel to it, but the quirky, often brutal and always deadpan humour is probably not going to be engaging for many kids. It worked for me. That the human characters talk in their native languages, occasionally translated "by professional interpreter, exchange student or experimental device" while "all dog barks are presented in English" tells you most of what you need to know. The domineering mayor of 'Megasaki City' banishes all dogs to an island rubbish tip, following an outbreak of 'canine flu'. His 12-year-old ward goes in to find and rescue his own dog. Needless to say, it does not go according to plan. Various American star names make up the canine cast. Accusations of 'cultural appropriation' have been levelled at the film, but its bonkers enough that I think the Japanese film industry at least would probably approve...
A Quiet Place - This is a superb post-apocalyptic horror with an ingeniously simple concept - If you make a noise, the monsters will get you! We follow a family (Emily Blunt, John Krasinski and - without wishing to spoil things - their varying number of kids) as they struggle to survive and lead a normal-ish life in an abandoned world, where they can only communicate in whispers and sign language (however much they might want to yell sometimes!). As you might expect, it's very tense and the sound design is amazing. (Kudos to Cineworld for showing it on one of its better sound-proofed screens.) At a lean 90 minutes, it doesn't waste time with backstory or anything other than the family and their immediate plight, and is all the better for it. The creatures, slightly reminiscent of Aliens, are never far away, but aren't over-used. They're mainly seen in quick glimpses, or a close-up of a limb, an ear, or lots of teeth. Scary stuff.
Black Panther - Another film which deserves its hype is Marvel's 18th. Yes, it's great to finally have a Hollywood blockbuster where the main cast (led by Chadwick Boseman in the title role) are nearly all black, where the story is African-centric rather than US-centric (albeit in the made-up country of Wakanda), and which gives strong (and not just token) roles to its female characters. It's even better that this is treated as normal. But, diversity points aside, it's also a cracking good blockbuster. Okay, it follows the now-established Marvel origin movie template, so it's not going to win too many prizes for originality, but everything it does, it does really well. All of the characters, including the villains, are well-rounded and there's a lot going on. Plot-wise, it's a struggle for power and an object lesson in the responsible use of power. Action-wise, it's up there with the best.
I, Tonya - Now this is a bold film. Take the true life story of American Olympic figure skater, Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie), her abusive mother (Allison Janney) and, later, her abusive husband (Sebastian Stan), and the ill-fated plot to nobble rival skater, Nancy Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver). Now make it a disjointed mix of mockumentary interviews and flashbacks. Now make it a black comedy. Amazingly, it not only works, it works really well. The interviews bring you closer to the characters and the absurdity and humour knock a little of the nasty edge off their actions, but without undermining the film's power. Sometimes uncomfortable, but compellingly watchable throughout, you find yourself empathising with Tonya and even (against your better judgement) liking some of the more unpleasant characters too. The film doesn't exactly completely exonerate her, but the real life Tonya Harding has said it's mostly true. A good one if you're in the mood for something a bit different.
You Were Never Really Here - You'd think I'd have learned by now (especially after Phantom Thread) not to watch films just because they get rave reviews. A bearded, barely-recognisable Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe, a mercenary who helps track down missing kids and punish their kidnappers. There's a plot, in which he rescues the governor's daughter and gets drawn into a wider conspiracy, but writer/director Lynne Ramsey isn't really interested in that (and it shows). This is more a character study of Joe and what makes him do the things he does. Which is all very well, except that (spoiler alert) it never gets beyond "some bad things happened to him as a kid, so now he's a loner and he fights bad guys". Which makes him intense, but just not that interesting.
Pacific Rim: Uprising - To my shame, I've not seen the Guillermo del Toro original (though I have just picked it up on DVD), so I can't say how good a sequel it is. There's no sign of the del Toro magic here though. Watching giant robots smash each other is entertaining enough, and it's a million times better than certain Michael Bay efforts. It is, however, so overblown that there's often little sense of tangible danger, and it frequently feels like you're watching someone play a video game. It gets by mostly on the charm of its lead actors, John Boyega and Cailee Spaeney. They play, respectively, the reluctant son of a war hero and a determined teenage hacker, both of whom get sucked into a new conflict. It's fun in a Marvel way, but nothing outstanding.
Ready Player One - Now this, of course, is a film almost entirely about playing video games. Described (pretty accurately) as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets The Matrix", it's set in a dystopian future where the populace seeks refuge from their daily lives inside a virtual world, the OASIS. When its creator (Mark Rylance) dies, bequeathing control to whoever solves three challenges, teen gamers Parzival (Tye Sheridan) and Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) team up to win through ahead of the evil IOI corporation (headed up by the dastardly Ben Mendelsohn). It's a simpler, trimmed-down story compared with the book, but the main changes - making Art3mis a much more important character and replacing the 1970s video game challenges with more cinimatic ones) feel right for the screen. There's an underlying message about how we live our lives and interact with one another, but mostly this is Spielberg exercising his popcorn entertainment skills. Flowing seemlessly between the OASIS and the real world, and packed full of joyfully geeky tributes (Yay, Serenity!), it's a lot of fun. Definitely one to watch on the big screen though.
Isle of Dogs - Wes Anderson is a "Marmite" director. Whether you love or hate his works, Isle of Dogs will not change your opinion, as it's his most Wes Anderson-y film yet. The stop-motion animation has a charming, Wallace & Grommit style, home-made feel to it, but the quirky, often brutal and always deadpan humour is probably not going to be engaging for many kids. It worked for me. That the human characters talk in their native languages, occasionally translated "by professional interpreter, exchange student or experimental device" while "all dog barks are presented in English" tells you most of what you need to know. The domineering mayor of 'Megasaki City' banishes all dogs to an island rubbish tip, following an outbreak of 'canine flu'. His 12-year-old ward goes in to find and rescue his own dog. Needless to say, it does not go according to plan. Various American star names make up the canine cast. Accusations of 'cultural appropriation' have been levelled at the film, but its bonkers enough that I think the Japanese film industry at least would probably approve...
A Quiet Place - This is a superb post-apocalyptic horror with an ingeniously simple concept - If you make a noise, the monsters will get you! We follow a family (Emily Blunt, John Krasinski and - without wishing to spoil things - their varying number of kids) as they struggle to survive and lead a normal-ish life in an abandoned world, where they can only communicate in whispers and sign language (however much they might want to yell sometimes!). As you might expect, it's very tense and the sound design is amazing. (Kudos to Cineworld for showing it on one of its better sound-proofed screens.) At a lean 90 minutes, it doesn't waste time with backstory or anything other than the family and their immediate plight, and is all the better for it. The creatures, slightly reminiscent of Aliens, are never far away, but aren't over-used. They're mainly seen in quick glimpses, or a close-up of a limb, an ear, or lots of teeth. Scary stuff.
