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Reviews
Strange Darling (2023)
Twisty, unpredictable thriller.
I sometimes give characters from other, previous movies a backstory; for this thriller the character of ' The Lady', I think of Julia Ormond before she met Bill Pullman in Jennifer Lynch's Surveillance- a twisted, unhinged couple getting off on murder and torture rampage travelling the US picking off unfortunate victims.
I also think of her in the underrated 2015 French thriller ' Road Games'.
Who says males have to be creepy and unpredictable? I mean, I work with many females like this!
I liked how wrong footed I was here, at first I thought it a conventional cat and mouse serial killer stalking his prey but flips it.
Kyle Gallner displays the same sweaty intensity he did in ' The Passenger ' and is ably supported by Willa Fitzgerald as the' troubled' lady.
I would have preferred a more succinct backstory to the nature of ' The Tazer Lady' and her crimes rather than the exploration narration at the beginning which didn't work as it did with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The incidental music cues whenever ' The Demon' appears was quite silly and laughable.
I haven't stopped thinking of this since I saw it and it's great to see Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr , believable as a mountain couple. I would like to see a film of just them two eating breakfast and talking in their lovely wood cabin.
Salem's Lot (2024)
Average.
This inevitable remake of the classic 1979 TV miniseries lacks the slow build,creepy elements and silky, malevolence of James Mason. It feels watered down and has the inevitable ' tick box exercise ' which I won't go into! Suffice to say that the young black actor is stiff and bland, along with Lewis Pullman in the David Soul part.
It doesn't have the spooks of the original- the kitchen scene where Barlow comes thru the window still haunts me, and the classic "Let me in" moment at the bedroom window feels rather anticlimactic here.
Pilou Ausbaek doesn't have the velvet oiliness of Mr Mason. He looks like made up dandy, he doesn't get enough screen time to develop his character
It MAY have been better as a Netflix series?
Nonetheless, it's watchable with a couple of well done scenes- the transformation in the morgue, the ingenious use of a drive in cinema screen and the unexpected shooting of Alfre Woodward's Dr character.
Plus the small town itself looks divine- catnip for me!
A Man Called Otto (2022)
Sweet, watchable, a little too overdone.
Director Marc Forster made one of my favourite films of the last 30 years, 2001s Monster's Ball. Here he leaves the realistic, dark romance of two people finding each other through strange, different circumstances into a singular individual finding a sort of redemptive quality in other people through a more universal circumstance of grief.
As a grieving husband adjusting to life without his wife this lacks the depth and dark humour of About Schmidt or even the little seen but effective The Visitor with the excellent Richard Jenkins in his only lead role.
Where the film falters is the rather too irritating Spanish family who latch onto Otto rather too quickly, an underdeveloped trans character that felt tacked on and a obtrusive musical score which, like the similar Afterlife(TV show), felt like it was telling the audience how to feel during particular scenes.
I also wanted to see more of Otto and Sonya's lives as a middle aged couple- how the navigated their hardship of Sonya in a wheelchair, her role as a teacher at the school,her novels and importantly her cancer diagnosis. All this would indicate how Otto felt in ending his life, give more depth of his character.
Having just flashbacks to them as a younger couple worked yes but I wanted more. If I was thinking of ending my life I surely would reminisce about latter day events with Laura alongside older events in both our lives.
Nonetheless, as a easy Sunday film it delivers,is very watchable and Tom Hanks commands the screen.
Woman of the Hour (2023)
Solid directional debut.
Director Anna Kendrick (looking and sounding like a mash up of Laura, Mia Gorman and Celia our neighbour) makes an impressive debut behind the camera with effective design and photography capturing a 70s feel that looks very real.
She, as well as herself, gets strong performances out of her cast with Daniel Zovatto( looking like Rob Stark in a wig) as the serial killer and Kelley Jakle impressive in the opening scene as poor doomed Sarah.
I liked that the film showed multiple time frames in the life of twisted Rodney Alcada which makes his come upperance more enjoyable but a sense of anger runs through this as he evaded justice for so long. Something I'm sure Ms Kendrick has in mind the entire time.
For a sense of feminism under threat from toxic, dangerous men this would feature nicely as a double bill with Ms Kendrick's previous film of abused women Alice,Darling.
Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
Messy but some inspired moments.
The critics have really taken to this sequel in a negative way with audiences leaving unhappyand some demanding refunds! True maybe false?
Nonetheless, what we have here is a brave, sometimes original, infuriating, dazzling mess of a film that, I think, could have been better but just misses the mark.
Joaquin Phoenix,yet again, demonstrates versatility, depth,dedication as he has to pretty much all his roles; his portrayal of Arthur Fleck is at one moment rather tender and fragile the next raw and dangerous. He certainly is one of the best actors of the moment.
Lady Gaga is fine as the rather unhinged fellow inmate, without layers of make up she looks like a greasy,unwashed which the role demands.
The one stand out supporting performance was Leigh Gill as Gary Puddles. His testimonial in court was so gut wrenching sad. He was the only unsympathetic character in the entire film.
Where the film falters is in the unrelenting musical interludes which add nothing to the development of the story.
The first one was well done and conveyed the toxic relationship these two were in but then became a chore. As an audience- we get it! Is he the Joker or not? Cue another singing scene, followed by another court room scene.
If could have lost 30mins without the court room scenes and singing and dancing. I was getting restless under two hours.
But I admire the chutzpah of the whole thing. I think writer/director Todd Phillips should be praised for creating something grown ups would watch rather than the usual formulaic fodder that is populating the cinema. It certainly has inspired conversation with me and Laura, me and Glenn McKenna and me and Chris.
Mixed feelings should be embraced in conversation about any film.
Till Death (2021)
Great setting, lousy movie.
Those looking for a quick Friday night leave your brain at the door and just succumb to the brain deadheadedness of a Netflix film will probably get more out of this than we did.
This is a poorly made Gerald's Game lite woman trapped handcuffed to a corpse thriller with Megan Fox laughably bad. I give props to the overworked hair and make up department who manage to spruce up Ms Fox everytime she is hit,drowned,covered in blood,frozen- their always on hand to make sure her lip gloss is highlighted and hair not out of place.
It's laughable. With only the lovely wintry lake house coming away with any kudos!
I will give a little credit though, if the script was better written and a more solid daring actress was on hand it would be more enjoyable.
Hold Your Breath (2024)
Well acted expressionist horror.
A heady mix of The Witches of Eastwick (Veronica Cartwright mental disintegration) The Beguiled, The Witch with its jarring,unforgiving environments adding to the breakdown of an individual to horrific effect.
Sarah Paulson,as ever, is excellent in the lead- looking(as do the whole cast) of its time. Effective casting.
The most terrifying piece is just how Ebon Moss-Bachrach looks like our vanished,temperamental neighbour Liam. We chuckled everytime he's on screen.
It won't please most horror hounds but those wanting a taunt,slow burning horror with decent acting that lingers in the mind should check it out.
Speak No Evil (2024)
Competent remake.
The original Speak No Evil was in my top ten of the year and even offended my sister so much so that she threatened to not speak to me! Ho hum, every cloud....
This remake gets a more happier ending than the already famous nihilistic ending and actually improves some of the lazy plotting that marred the original- namely the discovery of the' souvenirs room' too conveniently by the main doomed guy that I felt was a plot point too far.
Here the children discover the room, which makes more sense and gives the character of Agnes more depth when telling her parents the 'secret'.
James McEvoy steals the film with a steady stream of charisma, charm, untrustworthy, sinister,temperamental and terrifying. He makes a decent villian- as he did in Split.
It's well directed with James Watkins who ratches up the tension and suspense and is certainly more watchable than its predecessor.
Out the two though, the 2022 version has the power, nightmarish quality and originality but I can understand if others prefer this version. It's less upsetting!
Blink Twice (2024)
Bod,assured directorial debut let down by lacklustre end.
Co writer and director Zoe Kravitz makes a solid debut behind the camera,showing a decent colour palette, effective sound design and a bunch of good performances.
It's certainly a film for 'today' with the MeToo movement,feminism and inappropriate behaviour being in the front row (especially Epstein Island!) and it addresses these weighty topics reasonably well.
What lets it down is that it doesn't go far enough in its depiction of appalling abuse when the lead character remembers what happened to her and the other females. To get the audience outraged more it really had to show how awful these gentlemen really are.
It takes too long to get going with too much emphasis on drug taking and tripping- we get it! When it should be giving us more tension and suspense...obviously until the last third.
The final scene in the art gallery beggars belief and is let down by a greedy ,narcissistic lead that clearly has got what she wants but loses the sympathy of the audience; it just doesn't fit well and all the moral outrage we had gone through is lost.
It's the kind of film,like Get Out, that warrants repeated viewings to pick up on the subtleties the story presents- the snake venom, the vape, the looks the men give each other etc.
A bold film that would have been better with another script rewrite.
Last Straw (2023)
Nifty little thriller.
What starts out as a 'siege' thriller develops into something rather original in its dissection into small midwestern lives of bored teenagers with nothing to do, ampted up on meds for bio polar and depression , smoking crack for release, and with limited funds; it also works as a pertinent tale of pranking gone wrong . Something young people should see and learn from!
It may bore those looking for gore and masked intruders looking to settle scores but that would be derivative , what it proposes is how these bored teenagers act- ok it ain't Rivers Edge but it's sharp and different.
The chilly photography and sparse soundtrack work well and whilst the title Last Straw works the (?) original title 'The Late Shift' works better.
The Substance (2024)
Bold,brave,darkly funny body horror.
I'll admit I was apprehensive about this Cannes screenplay winner as I was expecting a 'tick box exercise' of pretty much the entire back catalogue of previous 'body horror' and 'transgressive' horror/thrillers- the entire oeuvre of David Cronenberg, obviously his son Brandon, Brian Yuzna's cult classic Society, Titane, to the underseen Starry Eyes.
However, writer/ director Coralie Fargeat creates a pointed and deeply hilarious spotlight on the fickle and plastic world of showbiz, body image and the callow inescapable affliction of ageing. She wears her influences well yet creates a bold style of filmmaking .
She gets outstanding and brave full frontal performances out of Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, with able support by over the top queasy and greasy Dennis Quid ( great to see him again, though has he had work done on his cheeks?)
At 2hrs 20mins it is too long and it does have longueurs in the final third when it cuts back to the apartment when it should be building up the tension for the 'New Years Party'
It's a film I'll remember and it's good to see it on the cinema screen with an audience (albeit small)
The Demon Disorder (2024)
Well done Aussie horror.
The practical effects are outstanding in this grimy Australian horror with echoes of 'Relic' and 'The Taking of Deborah Logan' in the premise of dementia and Alzheimers Disease being a springboard of demonic possession.
The acting is top notch by the cast and they all seem like brothers going through this hell.
The ending is rather abrupt and doesn't really pay off but its refreshing to see the blood and gore well used and, from what I could tell, not much CGI effects used.
Kudos to the budget which was sparse but got across the dirtiest living conditions on this farm.
I predict these filmmakers have a bright future in this genre.
Mothers' Instinct (2024)
Your ' instinct' should be to watch the film!
A lengthy conversation between us two at the end of this Douglas Sirk looking melodrama was had. It touched on themes that we both discuss regularly, mainly how desperate women are to have children and what lives they lead once they have them. Here both woman live picturesque lives in big houses next to each other but what happens if there is a trauma that makes them evaluate these lifestyles they have.
It's an intriguing set up and makes full use of the title itself-as is evident in the last third of the film. The set design and photography are both top notch. It's a mash up of Sirk, Hitchcock and Lynch with a spattering of Haneke.
Both actresses are excellent and, like the flawed but interesting film Eileen, Anne Hathaway shows depth and nuance in her recent role choices.
The dark ending works and it had us both gripped.
Starve Acre (2023)
Chilly, atmospheric but cliched folk horror.
A mental checklist of pretty much any folk horror went through my mind whilst watching this. A mash up of Blood on Satans Claw and Lamb was the first films that crossed my mind, then Wake Wood, The Hollow and more recently Lords of Misrule.
Nonetheless, for me, any folk horror is good folk horror-from any continent.
Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark are outstanding in the lead roles and their grief at losing their son is palpable and raw, the soundtrack is sparse and adds to the foreboding goings on.
If nobody had seen the aforementioned films then they may take more out of this than me but they may be put off by the slow pace, I found it creepy and atmospheric and made me love the woods, air and bare trees that populate these films even more-as I did with Lords of Misrule.
Rebel Ridge (2024)
Heartfelt, well done action thriller, let down by muddled storytelling.
Writer/ director Jeremy Saulnier made an impressive debut in Blue Ruin (2013) and a worthy follow up with Green Room (2015) , which made better use of Patrick Stewart than the annoying Star Trek nonsense.
Here he makes an impassioned, almost sensitive thriller that doesn't follow the usual route of shooting, bone crunching etc that one would expect with a ' stranger coming into a small corrupt town'.
It reminded me of the Jack Reacher novels I enjoyed over the years.
Aaron Pierre commands the screen with quiet authority, dignity and decency and his opening scene with the bullish traffic cops was well played and conveyed a sense of outrage, which the film needs.
Its good to see Don Johnson and the reliable James Cromwell in supporting roles-they excel in slimy authority. Anna Sophia Robb is tender as the single mother with a past and I'm thankful there isn't the obligatory love story; merely a respectful team up.
Where the film is let down is a confusing soup of corruption and dirty deeds that I struggled with.
Nonetheless, it's a well staged Netflix flix that has heart and soul; something SOME actioners don't have nowadays.
Lore (2023)
Uninspired, unscary, unoriginal.
This got fave reviews mainly from Frighfest sycophants (Kim Newman) but not even the wonderfully creepy Richard Brake (wasted) can save this ' been there, done that' horror.
None of the stories seemed fresh, the first story had a decent monster (similar to Split Second), the last had a decent set up with a masked killer in a cinema but they all seemed tediously unscary.
Like a group of college students let loose with cameras and no script as well as no knowledge of previous portmanteau horrors.
The end makes no sense and what could have been better use made of Mr Brake is a wasted opportunity.
Trap (2024)
Stupid, silly ,farfetched but enjoyable
The latest from our old pal M. Night is devoid of tension within the first half when it should be building up.
Contains a wooden performance by Josh Harnett.
Has massive plot holes- surely a huge 6ft 4in guy in a tan jacket would be spotted on CCTV pushing a young drunk girl down the stairs and adding bottles of oil into a deep fat fryer then stealing an employee's apron? The CCTV monitors are revealed as rather huge and numerous with security monitoring them.
The film has tedious 'musical' interludes just to showcase how awful the daughter of M. Night is as an actress.
Yet, despite all these, and many others, I was enjoying how awful this was and was on the fence i was admiring the chutzpah in how this got made.
As blackly comic serial killer movies go this ain't no The House That Jack Built but a film I could laugh at and not feel guilt in doing so.
Oddity (2024)
Creepy moments, unsubtle storytelling.
Picture this: your a young woman alone in your new home- a creepy, isolated farmhouse, at night. There's a knock at the door and in front of you is a one eyed, dishevelled, recently discharged mental patient babbling about an intruder within the home. Would you run immediately away scared or stop and talk to him albeit briefly but guarded?
And how would you react to a deeply scary wooden male mannequin with a scream looking face, sitting at your dinner table? Would you immediately became horrified and troubled or register it and be nonplussed?
If you answer the latter in these questions then you need to invest in storytelling education because this took me out of this creepy and effective horror/chiller. I just felt the writer\director was trying too hard to be pulling the strings of slow burning horror.
This had echoes of Les Diabloque , no bad thing but needed more character building in these silly aforementioned moments.
Also the blind lady remarkably acted like she wasn't blind....
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Didn't need to be made but has good moments.
This redundant sequel/prequel whatever has a solid lead in Cailee Spaeny (so good in Priscilla) and has some effective and very tense setpieces, the creeping around the face huggers so not to alert them and gliding around the acid whilst in gravity are what I would expect from the director of Don't Breathe. It welcome for a filmmaker to use silence as a tool to work at pulling the audience heartbeat!
David Jonsson is also touching and humane as the 'android' both creepy and kindhearted- the opposite to 'Ash' in the original although its welcome to see the 'AI' version of Ian Holm as the aforementioned character.
It's better than Alien Conevant not as grand as Prometheus but I liked the greatest hits of all the Alien movies in its design.
A decent time killer but, please no more, that's it.
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)
Overdone sugar.
This British made piece of gorgeous looking cake follows a tradition of ' nice pictures' about the people who society seems to forget about yet triumph at the end(The Great Escaper,Living,The Phantom of The Open,Mrs Lowry and Son and best of all Wicked Little Letters).
They all find an audience, mainly middle age and that's fine with me.
Here the great Lesley Manville is again surrounded by fitted gowns and cold hearted tailors, like she was in the excellent Phantom Thread.
It's an overlong picture that has to make one swallow disbelief in installments- how easy it is for salt of the earth working class Ada to rally the ladies to strike so quickly and effortlessly at the house of Dior, how easy it is for the well to do French count to dazzle Ada into getting into Dior in the first place.
The French are portrayed so stereotypical with tramps drinking red wine, baguettes, black and white striped T Shirts and I kept expecting a French man on a bicycle with onions around his chest.
It's all so sugary and unbelievable but Manville steals the film.
The Instigators (2024)
Enjoyable but forgettable crime caper.
Both Casey Affleck and Matt Damon starred in Oceans Eleven (2001) so it's no surprise they both collaborate in this similar updated version.
Like the aforementioned fipm it's an enjoyable time killer with colourful characters, zany action scenes,underwritten female roles and a hairbrained plot.
The ever reliable Ron Perlman enjoys himself as the brusque major but poor Toby Jones has nothing to do as his P. A.
It has zip,pace and colour and I laughed several times at the one liners,felt they both had some chemistry together but whilst writing this review, I'm wracking my brains trying to remember this film!
The Moor (2023)
Interesting, well done horror chiller.
A sense of slow burning dread permeates throughout this low budget chiller set in Lancashire. An updated version of Don't Look Now, Lake Mungo and Picnic At Hanging Rock type melancholy and unresolved mystery is set up straight away with a startling opener that is both well done and creepy (though clearly not done in a single take; if it's what the director intended)?
David Edward Robertson effectively performs the grief and utter obsession as the father of the missing boy, the sound design is subtle and chilly with expert photography capturing the strange misty moorland.
Where I find the film,slightly, falters is the rather repetitive structure of the story with aimless visits to the moor with another ' seeker' to locate the missing child and an ending that is ambiguous to the point of laziness in the scripting- how did the father make the young woman go back out onto the moor? How did he coerce her? Why did she have on her camera? Was it to please the 'found footage' fans of horror? Whatever it is it didn't make much sense. And at under two hours the film is too overlong.
However it has played on my mind since I saw it and it bears a recommendation from me on the journey writer/ director makes for his future endeavours.
Kill (2023)
Derivative but enjoyable kick ass fest.
This violent, bloody Indian actioner set on a train suffers the same flaws that beset Dev Patel's Monkey May, a huge feel of deja vu and repetitiveness. The fight scenes are very very impressive and the amount of time spent on the choreography prior to shooting must be commended.
The amount of running up and down train corridors brandishing knives, wanting vengeance,stabbings, being thrown out of moving trains etc etc etc does become tiresome.
I felt the first half was better sustained with the developing characters, fights and heart- I genuinely felt the love between Amrit and Tulika before it goes full bloody action. The line spoken :" I killed only four of yours,you've killed forty of my family" a telling line, there are no victors here.
Monkey Man had a degree of heart and soul that I feel Kill doesn't making it the better film but with the level of pace and action it does exactly what one would expect from this type of film.
Trigger Warning (2024)
Formulaic and forgettable.
Jessica Alba can certainly kick ass but fails in developing or showing much depth to her character especially when dealing with the sudden loss of her father, then going after the bad, home grown terrorists that caused the death.
It's all been done before but if you are in for a 'leave your brain at the door, pizza and beer' evening then it will fill a couple of hours on the couch.
It has the same level of corrupt small town USA shenanigans that made RoadHouse(the original) a cult classic but misses the snap,crackle and pop of the watchable,quotable film.
Alba's character looks pretty but after being beat up by a group of men only has a small bruise to show. It's that kind of film!
In a Violent Nature (2024)
Intriguing set up, repetitive execution.
This horror from Chris Nash takes the POV from the killer rather than the obligatory ' final girl' we have been accustomed to in the past several decades. It's a intriguing plot structure that follows the killer through the woods, bumping off individuals.
But it is exactly this that is tedious and , well, rather boring. Imagine a character in a computer game just walking around a city, committing acts of violence over and over again-it's this film. And whilst I didn't hate it I found this set up rather boring.
The gore is ' old school' and all the better for it. Nash clearly knows his horror films and it shows but the gore just goes on and on. The scene where he cuts off the limbs of the park ranger is way too overlong that even for a gore hound like me I found myself wishing it were over.
The ' Yoga Death' scene was inventive but again proves no real purpose except to highlight what a decent special effects unit Nash has at his disposal.
The ending ends on a whimper rather than a bang but by that time I was past caring.