Month: September 2021

So, I must admit there is an issue here. I find myself perpetually busy and it means that I don’t really have as much time to write about the films I see. There is a trade off between how many I can see and how many I write about, and unless I have a burning passion, it can make it difficult to justify the writing of this blog, especially when one has spent so long doing so little over the course of a year or so. I’m not spending an hour or so telling you that Jungle Cruise is shit. But that is fine, and some days or evenings this spewing of consciousness can be rewarding, whether it fills up an evening I decide to rest at home, or becomes a symbol of productivity, a tangible output, it still has a place. If you would like more regular updates about what’s worth watching and to discuss them with me, as well as just sending me a message about them, you can also find me on letterboxd, a pretty cool tool to use as a film diary. You can rate, review and recommend films on the site. It’s pretty epic. Still, enough wittering, it’s time for more wittering.

I apologise for my absence recently. In the film blog world, we have our own shady universe, with our own banks, churches, schools and courts. You think money runs the world, wrong, what truly runs the world is irregularly updated film blogs from sad guts such as myself, therefore friends, when I rise to the top I Shall remember you (Although, don’t mention this world to anyone. If word spreads that I spilled the beans, I could be killed, or worse expelled). However, in the mean time, I was put in front of film-blog-court accused of attempting to sabotage our friends over at Surbiton Rebel Wilson Fan Club. Once we’d heard from the witness for the prosecution and myself, the 12 angry men decided that I must be innocent anyone who enjoys a Rebel Wilson doesn’t have standards to sabotage. Now that is out of the way, I’m officially back and about as good as ever, so what films have we to look at today?

Luca

Let’s start off with a Disney+ movie. I’m aware this came out a while ago, but I’ve only just seen it and as this blog sticks to my rules, I shall discuss it. (I’ve already reviewed the more recent release on Disney+ which is Cruella).

Having explored the human mind, the after life and rats cooking food, this Pixar movie takes it down a notch. The film introduces us to the fearful Luca, a sea creature who never goes onto the Land. He and his family live off the coast of Italy, near a town who hate sea monsters. One day, he meets Roberto, a confident boy who tells him how wonderful living on the land is. When Luca’s parents find out he’s been on the land, they threaten to send him away to the deep dark ocean, at which point, Luca and Roberto run away to the town to find a Vespa and live their lives free. They realise they can do this along with their friend Julia by winning a competition which involves cycling, swimming and eating pasta (Because, you know, that’s what you do in Italy).

There were a few reasons I liked this film. Aesthetically, it’s one of the most enjoyable films Pixar have produced. The idyllic colourful Italian seaside town has a totally vibrant feeling with an almost beautiful colour scheme. The place feels alive and like it’s own character. Dream sequences were also creatively made and were welcome in their interludes. The music provides 20th century Italian pop which while I’m not an expert, is certainly upbeat alongside a standard string section providing the usual standard of soundtrack.

The plot itself was fairly simple. It’s not going to win any awards for coming up with something new, however what it does do is with a shorter run time of around 90 minutes is forgo the adventure across the world for a simpler character based story and that works so much better than the usual dash from A to B with the character learning a message along the way.

The lesson the film wants to get across is that it’s okay to be yourself. I read the film as an allegory around being gay. The protagonists being hunted for who they were, having to hide themselves and being at risk of being out. There were certainly scenes and moments which were very on the nose for the metaphor, my favourite one being near the end, but for those who haven’t yet seen the film, I won’t spoil it.

Ultimately, Luca proved to be a fun, heart warming family watch. When watching with parents and younger sister, it proved to garner positive reviews. It’s colourful animation, feel good story and enjoyable soundtrack made it a simple, but pleasurable experience. [Grade: A-]

Luca is available on Disney+

The Nest

Meanwhile, a film I certainly wouldn’t watch with my family is The Nest. It’s been around 10 days since I watched the Nest, and already I’m struggling to write down a plot. That’s not down to it being forgettable, but down to it being much more of a character study.

Rory (Jude Law) decides to move back to England from America with his wife Allison (Carrie Coon). She agrees to it, despite her reservations as Rory believes he has a big opportunity. They move into a house which is far too big for them, in an almost haunting way with their two children. However, soon as Rory starts to interact with business partners, Allison starts to doubt the integrity of her husband and whether he can see through his promises. There are questions around whether she is right or if she is becoming paranoid as she increasingly begins to lose her composure.

The plot itself isn’t especially interesting and I didn’t care for the children. However what I did care about was the two lead performances. Jude Law playing a cocky business man is wonderful to watch. His charisma is clear to see as are the cracks as his plans don’t come to fruition. His love and his disdain for his wife switch quickly and create a really tense atmosphere. If he’s great, then Carrie Coon is simply incredible. She steals the show with her descent into madness. We question her and empaphise with her. While Law’s character says a lot with his dialogue, Coon’s says even more without.

The production design behind the house is great as well. It’s creepy and atmospheric, much like the Overlook Hotel. It truly adds to the atmosphere, as Ali becomes paranoid that it’s dividing the family apart. Alongside a droning, low key score the film acts like a horror, but isn’t really. Instead of a psychological thriller, it plays as as a character study as you can read what’s going on much clearer than Ali.

This film won’t be for everybody. The lack of plot or clear direction mean it’s not the most accessible film out there. However, it’s still an experience and if you let yourself into the minds of the characters, you’re going to be immersed in a world which can entrance you.

A slow burning, atmospheric piece, The Nest provides an interesting cinematic experience and is worth going to see if only for two incredible lead performances by Jude Law and Carrie Coon [Grade: B]

The Nest is available in Cinemas Now

Wow, what are you doing re-blogging for the second time in a month(?). Is this your official grand return? Honestly, no. I’ve been hit with a cold. A novel idea after 18 months of bliss, it’s not even knocking me down that much, it’s just a tad inconvenient and would be discourteous if I were to go and watch a movie. I also didn’t have the desire to fork out £50 to watch Palace vs Brighton, so here we are instead. I’ll review two films today.

Everyone’s Talking About Jamie

Maybe my general indifference (or worse) towards Everybody’s Talking About Jamie was damned from the start. I’d heard some average reviews from those I trusted and more importantly, I’d seen it at the West End by chance only a couple of weeks before, so had a solid basis to compare it to. To make things even worse, it had only been a week since I’d watched a musical which was one of my favourite films of the year. But I had hope. Unlike the masses, I enjoyed the similarly corny The Prom the previous year, so I went in with an open mind. Was it any good? No, not really.

Jamie New is a Sheffield based boy who on his sixteenth birthday is given a pair of heels from his mother. From a Northern working class area, Jamie dreams of nothing more than performing as a drag queen, much to the disapproval of his father, played by Finchy from the office. (If this sounds like a shit Billy Elliot, there is a fairly simple reason for that). The rest of the movie is two hours of self discovery and feel-good corniness that you’d expect, culminating in Jamie wanting to wear a dress to prom. Mentored by Hugo, the former drag queen Loco Channelle (Richard E. Grant), he has to find his voice. I know, the plot sounds a bit derivative, but it’s a fair summary. It’s not exactly Inception, but whatever. It’s a corny feel good film.

So, what did I like about it? Max Harwood who plays Jamie does a solid enough job, and one or two of the songs are earworms. There are a couple of humorous and emotional moments but unfortunately, the film falls flat on many notes.

Firstly, the problem is that it feels like a stage play. The dialogue which felt corny (but forgivable) on the stage was kept fully in tact for the musical. In the first and last scenes especially, this doesn’t really work as the dialogue was just dreadful. The director wasn’t brave enough to do any show don’t tell. Lots of Jamie’s mother’s scenes are with her friend Rae, where she just says what is going on. Yes, do this on the stage, with limited resources, but please on a big screen, show don’t tell. Oh, what is happening and how does this character feel? It doesn’t matter, I’ll just say it directly so any popcorn munching, fuel stockpiling idiot can work it out…

The scenes were set up more often than not like the stage play. The song “You are beautiful” is a carbon copy, and that’s fine. It’s just not imaginative. The main problem I had with the songs, is that they didn’t feel like they were being sung, but more that they were dubbed. There were actually a couple of times where I noticed the audio go out of sync with the lips, in a musical. Oh, come on.

Actually, the main moment I saw this was the emotional crux of “He’s my boy”, a song where the mother can thrive, but there was so much going on in the screen, that you couldn’t focus on what a quietly reflective moment this was. The mother really was screwed. Her important moments, such as selling her necklace and letting go of a past relationship were totally scrubbed from the film, so much so that by the time we get her pay-off we have forgotten she’s there.

One more complaint, then I’m almost done, and this is probably my biggest one. Richard E Grant’s casting as Loco Chanelle was cheap. He felt overly camp for the sake of it. If you didn’t like James Corden in The Prom, then surely you should be really upset with Grant for this. With the rise of Ru Paul’s Drag Race in the UK, it seemed odd they couldn’t find an actual drag-queen for this role and that would have felt far more appropriate as Grant didn’t quite hit the right notes in my opinion. His song about the AIDS crisis was a sensitive moment (at the expense of a rather humorous dramatic song from the stage play), although maybe after the fantastic It’s A Sin came out on channel 4 this year, it may have lost some of it’s impact. Albeit, younger audiences won’t have watched It’s A Sin, so maybe the comment is more fussy than anything.

Really, my problem was that the film didn’t get anywhere. Most of the kids seemed cool with Jamie in a dress, apart from one and that gets resolved far too quickly in the end. The mother doesn’t do anything. Jamie wears the dress he’s always wanted without many obstacles apart from a teacher, and his big issue, his father Finchy, doesn’t even get resolved. This is a stage problem as much as anything, but I guess the whole story comes across as a bit stagnant at times. Again, it doesn’t matter because it’s a light hearted musical, and I don’t really care that much.

Summary

A star turn from Max Harwood as Jamie doesn’t stop this film disappointing. Questionable sound editing, casting of Richard E Grant, and directorial choices left me feeling flat. Still, if you’re not as picky as me and want an easy feel good musical film, watch it. If not, why did you even bother reading this review. [Grade: D]. Better than Cats.

ETAJ is available for free on Amazon Prime

The Green Knight

I went to my Curzon having just seen a Pompey draw with Charlton and John Marquis miss a sitter, so I was already fairly tired. Therefore, I can say with full confidence, that if you want a high octane, sword fighting movie to wake you up, this isn’t the one for you.

Gawain (Dev Patel) is the nephew of the king of the town. He has never been that close with him, but one day, the King extends an olive branch. As they all sit down to their christmas dinner, a weird tree knight comes in and challenges a night to his game. They strike him, and one year later, they go to the green church and he strikes them back. For some reason, Gawain takes on this challenge, gets rattled and goes for the head. Of course, this was a devious trick from the tree god who survives the beheading, meaning a year later Gawain needs to go on a quest to meet his end.

The story is based on a Middle-English poem called Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and seems relatively faithful. By this, I mean there are lots of random scenes which aren’t linked thrown together to look like a narrative movie. I really struggled to understand the point of some of these scenes, and the thematic consistency was loose at best. In the end, I did get the characters enough and there is a narrative in the last 20 minutes which felt much stronger and which was probably the best part of the film. Maybe the lack of narrative structure made it tougher to understand why our lead character was so willingly walking to his death.

While the story leaves you wanting more, the film looks and sounds brilliant. The cinematography is wonderful, with a vibrant green and an eerie grey both setting the moods at different times. It’s slightly experimental at times, but most of the things it goes for are brilliant. I particularly liked the scene with the giants which is much more atmospheric than I’d expect for such an independent film.

The soundtrack was also divine. The primarily ominous strings put together by Daniel Hart were subtle, but foreboding as we were being lead to our heroes demise. It really played into this natural, almost empty atmosphere.

Between the two of these, this film is an essential piece to watch at the cinema. I’m not sure how well it will translate into home viewing, as the atmosphere may become a bit lost. The pacing is pretty slow, which works, but it means that it requires a bit more focus.

Otherwise, the film is generally well acted. Dev Patel gives it a good go in an understated performance. His face says an awful lot, especially during the last 20 minutes where he says very little and his face does most of the acting. The maturing of the character can be seen in a way that a less capable actor would have struggled with.

Summary

A well acted, beautiful slow film, what The Green Knight may lack in a coherent, tight narrative, it makes up for in an eerie, atmospheric piece which is much better viewed on the big screen. [Grade: B] B

The Green Knight is available for free on Prime and is currently on a limited cinema run.

So, may we start?

I go to the cinema with Liam fairly regularly and usually we have mutual opinions on films. Some we disagree on, we may like some more than the other and that’s cool. Occasionally, one of us will enjoy a film, but it won’t be the other’s favourite (He liked Jungle Cruise?). However, I don’t think a film has divided us as viscerally as Annette. One of us thought it was a bloated mess and was glad it was over, the other considered it one of their favourites of the year so far. As I was watching, I could see how someone could love and hate this marmite film, considering those I’d recommend it to and those who I’d tell to avoid it regardless of my personal opinion. If a 2.5 hour long rock-opera with music made by the Sparkes Brothers takes your fancy, a film which brings the weirdness up to 11, Adam Driver playing a dark humoured comedian, and a film which has a cursed puppet baby as it’s central focus, then please read ahead. If this sounds like your version of hell, you won’t like the film. That’s okay. One of me and Liam didn’t like it either.

This is a very difficult film to describe without spoiling a major plot point, but I’ll try. The trailer above manages to give nothing away, which doesn’t help me work out what I can spoil either, but it’s a fun film to go into blind. Henry (Adam Driver) is an abstract comedian, and very succesful in his life, he falls for Anne (Marianne Cottilard). They then have a baby, and following an event, it is realised this young child has an incredible singing voice, so Henry gets his conductor friend (Simon Helberg) to help him make her a star.

The above sounds very standard, but the film is anything but. It’s impossible to describe without spoilers. The film has deceit, death and characters who are wooden puppets. I was lucky to have had a drink before hand, because fully sober, or in the wrong mood, this film would have rubbed me up the wrong way. It’s not accessible and in fact, you need to suspend your disbelief, and there is one thing that helps you do that, Adam Driver.

Back from his incredible performance in Marriage Story, Driver is absolutely incredible in this film. He gives everything and in his most stagey moments captivates you, like your one of the crowd. Going from a performer to an emotional wreck, the instability of his character leads to apprehension. He’s a ticking time bomb who likes control and can’t have it. He desires the voice of his daughter, but is in anguish when he hears it. This role is such a difficult one and he pulls it off which such suave. Despite not being likable, the character was so intriguing and powerful. There is a particular scene three quaters of the way through where he says nothing, but his face does all of the acting. Surely, he should be considered for an Oscar, if not an ASBO nom is likely to be headed his way.

The casting is absolutely excellent across the board. Marion Cottillard has an absolutely incredible voice, while Simon Helberg (Howard from the Big Bang Theory) is absolutely wonderful. There is a scene midway through where he is conducting a band, but talking to the audience, and he portrays so much emotion within his words and actions. Now he has the chance to show his talents, boy is he thriving. His scenes with Driver, including a wonderful example of physical theatre are all divine. There is also an actor who comes in late in the film (I shall not say who as it involves a spoiler) and despite how unlikely this seems, she really stands level with an actor as talented as Driver to give the film an incredible finale.

While the actors alone are a pleasure to watch, the set design and cinematography are brilliant as well. With an envious green tone throughout, some of the sets just feel brilliant, especially the hyperbowl one. Meanwhile, the camera movements are incredible ambitious in certain scenes, such as the opening one and particularly the Helberg conductor scene.

I’m this far into a review about an opera and haven’t discussed the music. It’s a wonderful alt rock soundtrack by Sparks. It goes from rock to operatic very quickly, keeping you on your toes. The music may not vary that much and there is a lot of Les Mis singing what you’re thinking, but it’s so big and grand and done with such emotion that it doesn’t really matter. The humour in these scenes is very meta and on the nose, as is clear in the opening scene which is a song called “May we start?“

While I found the film capitivating with its key ideas of jealousy and control, there is a lot that people won’t like. They might say it’s an overly-long repetitive film which swaps story telling for weirdness. That may be true, especially the latter half. Baby Annette is a marionette (showing the themes of control and her parents’ relationship with her) after all and requires a significant suspension of disbelief or a drink before hand. However, if you really are into it, the 140 minute run time flies by. Sure, the music is a bit samey at times, but it’s fine as the performances are what draws you in. People may wish it ended earlier, but we’d miss one of the best final scenes of the year.

It’s a really strange movie and it will divide you. This blog is where I write my opinions and I won’t apologise for that. Love or hate this film, you won’t be able to stop thinking about it.

Summary

Annette is a captivating, strange musical. You won’t have seen anything like it, so it’s a massive risk. While some will despise it, it is in my opinion one of the best films of the year with a world class performance from Adam Driver, a wonderful dramatic score and a beautifully shot film entrancing me and more than making up for any flaws within it. This film is the sort which could truly become a cult classic in the years ahead. [Grade: A]

Annette is on a limited cinema run now and is on MUBI in November.