Reviews

A vehicle to prove, as if it needed proving, that Charlize Theron can play the gun-toting high-kicking action star with style.

Set in trashy near-wall-ending 80s Berlin, all neon and euro-pop, mixed with a running thread of an ongoing smoky MI6 interrogation.

The plot is a nonsensical mess and as such it's very hard to become engaged with any of it. The film feels long even though the running time is well under 2 hours.

If you want to see Charlize get the snot beaten out of her before she slams a guy's head with a fridge door or stabs him in the face with keys, then this will have something to offer you - one sequence during a street protest is very well choreographed - but otherwise this is a forgettable bore.

Very much an Edgar Wright film - blazing eclectic soundtrack, wham-bam zippy high-def superhero-style cartoon action scenes and yet zero substance with the predilections of a bored teenager.

The introduction, with their shticky choreographed-to-the-music with CGI overlays fascination, and Baby's ultra slick driving getaway for a bank heist, is entertaining enough as a distraction but not something that especially engaged me.

And this remains it's problem as it attempt to deliver some kind of build up to the expectedly hyper 3rd act.

The music-sync thing rather forgotten and Baby, whom it is implied is happy to drive getaway and has been for a while before the start of the film, moves on his conscious.

The reasonable cast of actors have little to work with however when they are called upon. Space is vaguely threatening in his few scenes, Hamm a psycho in love (a la Clyde), Foxx annoying and Gonzalez a gun-toting Bonnie for a couple of scenes - in all, a set of barely two-dimensional characters.

The denouement, where Baby forgets the cars and suddenly opts for the gun, a little bit the desperado (but hey, he's a good kid), is utterly ludicrous and like something out of a DC film.

Stylish yes but utterly forgettable and not remotely engaging or well written.

A film with an intriguing first half hour and set-up, a 70s-style spy thriller with mysterious shadow figures, typewriters and cassette recordings, that loses its way as it dives down into an incomprehensible labyrinthine political head-scratcher.

The muted, stripped down palette and sets and the very intentional non-digital central setup of an accountant transcribing cassette taps does remind of past films like The Conversation.

As it moves on however the initial setup does largely seem like a gimmick to have a base to move off from.

The main reason to keep watching for me is the always-engaging Cluzet. Often called upon to play the 'everyman' in his films (e.g. Tell No One), here he plays Duval very downtrodden - unhappy with his working life, attending AA meetings and living a seemingly very solitary, structured life. And yet when he's embroiled into criminality, he's always believable. He struggles, a fish out of water, usually to be beaten back and really gave me my only reason to keep watching: I wanted to see what would happen to Duval.

A pity given the main parlour games between shadow operatives seeking for 'the notebooks' had lost my interest well before the 87mins were done but there's also nothing especially off-putting going on either.

An academic named John 'Oldman' (clever stuff) about to leave town, gather his closest 'friends' to his cabin and tells them he's a 14,000 year old Cro-magnon man.

Nothing in the way of a cinematic experience here, it's staged more like a play around (mostly) one single location, it's focus is on a script aiming roughly in the direction of philosophy -- covering a bit of religion, human impact on environments and the 'goodness inside' -- and the 7 characters that debate their way around their friends' rather ludicrous spur-of-the-moment announcement.

While it's understandable each character takes such a different stance on John's story, it's also here that the story becomes so unstuck for me: even if you can ignore the occasionally ropey acting, the reactions to the various things John states during the evening are so unbelievable and extreme it's farcical.

And they play to stereotypes, Ellen Crawford's 'Edith', a character so spectacularly annoying even in the presence of the ever-delightful John Billingsley, is a devout Christian and is so easily upset she has to announce she can't listen anymore at several points.

It's a pity as there are some few tidbits of interesting points covered here, but not enough to even cover it's slim 87min running time and the way it's acted out is so distractingly irritating it's a wonder I finished it.

Sharp-tongued political thriller, that's not quite as sharp or thrilling as it thinks, and very baggy around the edges.

The focus of the plot is Washington lobbying, gun control and the general moral bankruptcy surround lobbying in general. The latter played up somewhere between a barking, permanently angry Sam Waterson (is there any other kind) and the ever-brilliant steel-faced Jessica Chastain.

The subject of gun lobbying and the US 2nd Amendment is something so mired in unsolvable rhetoric I'll admit it gave the script a dull edge for me from the outset.

The script allows for a lot of grand-standing and melodrama around every corner, the lobbying-team band-and-forth know-it-all banter a little old-hat at this point and very much sub-Sorkin. It's also not particularly believable.

The only really interesting part of the film for me was Chastain, sticking to her steely resolve while finding new moral depths -- but a few times in the (rather lengthy) running time reveals that she might be human after all, in some well-played scenes in the latter third of the film.

The denouement is so ridiculously over-the-top, in pure Hollywood style, that it did bring a measure of humour for me to a film otherwise lacking any.

Tarantino has always been a bit of an indulgent filmmaker to me. Script full of lengthy scenes filled with at least one 'speech-ifying', righteous characters that sound all a bit similar; sumptuous visuals; classic score; lengthy running times and at least a touch of unnecessary violence.

This film isn't a new take on things. It does look good, and sound great too -- the man certainly knows the craft. Most of the dialogue-heavy 'someone's going to be found out' scenes are at least led by a delightfully bonkers Christoph Waltz,

An OK effort, 30mins too long and still manages a rather pointless (if loud) denouement.

He's done better, and worse.

A cliche-twisting more-comedy-than-horror take on the stock 'teens got to the woods and die' horror trope.

Stellar cast all around, I particularly enjoy Whitford and Jenkins' double act, and wit-laden dialogue abounds: no surprise anything this smart would involve the ever-flourishing Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon.

Just a pleasure to watch.

Japanese hand-drawn anime featuring a slightly unusual take on the freaky-friday-esque body swapping trope.

In a continuous string of well-drawn dualities on one hand you have Mitsuha, a girl from a small town engrossed in a traditional Shinto upbringing; on the other you have Taki a boy from ultra-modern Tokyo working part-time as a waiter.

The small town is realised with a soft, dreamy sunshine-streaked palette; Tokyo as near photo-realist and futuristic - in both cases, the visuals are handled with real care & attention and quite noticeable: it's a visual treat.

The plot follows 3 main stages, of the 2 main characters realising their predicament, developing each others lives in some way and eventually Taki's efforts to find Mitsuha in the 'real' world. (they can't remember each other's names, hence the title)

Some unexpected turns are found and it really ramps up the tension for a thriller of a denouement. The voice work here (dubbed into English) is standard fare, and the sound track super poppy which for whatever reason I found faintly amusing.

Very engaging overall and a nice compact running time, recommended.

A near-three hour German comedy that was always destined for some critical attention, given how unusual the setup and how good the performances.

Sandra Huller, so good in her role as the business-like emotionally-detached daughter, anxiously reacting to the sudden unannounced appearance of her father into her life, following the death of his beloved dog at the start of the film, seeking to restore their bond gone adrift - both characters actually seem rather lonely in themselves.

Simonischeck's father figure, and his alter-ego (the titular Toni) is quite the weapons-grade buffoon (thanks for that phrase, Empire), yet errs on the hilarious over irritating and never strays into the implausible.

There are a couple of scenes so awkward it's hard to watch (one of those does end on an emotional punch at least), but in general the script balances itself well between awkwardness, laugh-out-loud funny and genuine sadness without being mawkish or folding into cliche.

Definitely a slow burner, got to have some patience for the running time, and a bit of a mood piece but I found this surprisingly affecting and recalled several moments in the film days after seeing it. Recommended for those willing to look outside the box a bit.

A teacher begins a group on the concept of Autocracy and goes about (innocently) getting his students to conform.

Things get out of hand, in a very predictable fashion.

Essentially belonging to a group can be delightful, yet castigating and ignoring outsiders has it's drawbacks. Well done indeed.

The fact that this is German lends some credence but this feels like it relies far too much on the subjects (and possibly the audience too) being teenagers, as it really feels like a lot of teenagers acting like teenagers -- one of the initial group drops out simply because the 'uniform' doesn't suit her -- and the many expected graffiti and partying scenes get annoying very quickly.

The concept is still largely unbelievable in a modern world, and the script does little to convince otherwise.

On the face of it this is a standard cops-and-robbers bank heist tale, with a chalk/cheese pair of protagonists and a cliche edge-of-retirement lawman to give chase.

The script here though is sharper than your average. Jeff Bridges (on form) as the lawman, pulls out zingers a-plenty and there's generally plenty of black humour to go around. A deft melding of the ol' Slow West (gun) stock with a modern layering of dead-end ghost towns and bank foreclosures: the huge Texan landscapes & skies, both entirely empty, the camera snaps up whenever the opportunity arises, the moody score (when not dipping into Country-Rock) and dialogue all contributing to the very definite feel of a moody mourning, like something in this world is lost or broken.

Old fashioned American film-making, albeit from a Scottish director, I found this is a little lethargic to get going but by the end I was completely sold.

Wartime-set drama (during the Blitz), that's part cap-tip to working women, part acclamation to the power of cinema.

Arterton as the lead, Catrin, is hired early on as the sole woman on a small script writing team for the Ministry of Information, looking to the inspire the many at home and Americans abroad into joining the war in one swoop.

Arterton is solid enough in her portrayal, and the script nuanced enough to push the stories & plight of women in general with tact -- no grandstanding here -- and she's an entertaining, bright foil to Sam Claflin's lead-writer Buckley.

The romantic sub-plots here are a little to predictable, as is the denouement, thought Catrin is interesting enough for these to be passed off as forgivable.

The film clearly takes some delight in it's portrayal of old-timey film-making, and the actors working on them (Bill Nighy a deft-hand here as usual).

Entertaining, charming stuff here with a nice trim running time and engaging performances. Nothing especially stellar.

Not your average war film, there's not much on dialogue, narrative or heroics to be found here but what I did find was a portrayal of endurance, and one hell of a well crafted piece of cinema.

Rarely do I believe in the 'needs to be seen on the big screen' espousal thrown at many big budget efforts, but in this case I really wish I'd seen this on IMAX rather than the small screen.

The only real script note in play here is the intentionally mind-fuddling overlapping time narratives, a bit Inception-like and not, where the 3 main areas of interest: the initial group of soldiers from the beach, Tom Hardy in the skies, and Mark Rylance in his little boat, slowly conflate together in their own little time bubbles, it is I suppose meant to parallel how confused that event really was even if it could be described as a little too on the nose.

The technical aspects here, the scale and practical effects are sheer wonderment. How anyone could find this 'dull' with that pulsating score keeping the tension up whenever it wants (more often than not) kept my attention.

Superior film-making.

A young woman (Kendrick) returns to the family farm after many years, due to tragedy -- her lone brother's apparent suicide -- and grapples with a difficult situation and a combative relationship with her father.

A very British film to me: fine performances from both Kendrick and Troughton both controlled and realistically playing their parts, moody well-shot rural scenes providing some atmosphere to the bleak world: yet also one exhaustively dour, thin on plot, drama.

It's clearly sincere in the portrayal of the realities of modern farming and rural life, which may well be it's main drive alongside the similar-yet-different father\daughter relationship, but this left me cold.

A story about a man (Gerald Foos) and his apparently dead-inside wife letting in the world on his program of spying on motel guests.

Such a claim in this day is hardly surprising, and so the content and character on display here merely comes off as slightly 'odd' but not especially insightful or fascinating for me.

The main focus here is a man that is clearly a bit of braggart, a bit delusional and ridiculous, a bit cash-obsessed yet also enjoys a bit of voyeurism. He exclaims the values of souvenirs he's collected like it's impressive, yet is surprised his story is met by the media with a sense of wrong-doing.

The journalist here makes some odd choices indeed, why only one source for a one-note story is a huge point -- although one he does mention at least, there just isn't enough here to claim anything of special interest.

Here you have a character that lives a routine, un-ornamented life, yet breaks away from the average by the way he observes things, the small details of his life.

He writes about these things, and the film overlays his poetry to play this up but for me I found just watching Adam Driver watch people, pick-up objects and generally observe: I couldn't help but start looking at things the way he does. Gave the film a nice, slightly melancholic, moody feel which I really enjoyed.

He lives in an apparently care-free world with his girlfriend, whom is almost of the flip of him: she constantly searches and chases her dreams, spends her days learning the guitar, re-styling their house (rather 'interestingly'), engaging in 'potluck' cooking; while he watches on, slightly amused but never bothered by her foibles, if anything entirely contented and in love.

Only when he temporarily cannot write does the character seem to disappear, even in the face of a breathtaking vista, it's the written word that lights him up.

A really pleasantly paced film.