Month: June 2022

The Gentlemen (2019)

Where to find it: Netflix
Length: 110 minutes
Synopsis: It’s a Guy Ritchie gangster movie
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: Hugh Grant, Jeremy Strong, surprisingly easy-to-follow for a complex back-and-forth format
What I don’t like about it: Charlie Hunnam, the open racism, so many attempts at “cool” which come off pathetic, failed humour

Review:
Every few years, Guy Ritchie makes a desperate attempt to prove that he made Lock, Stock and Snatch which come off as yet-another British gangster flick albeit with a big budget and only serve to remind us of Matthew Vaughn’s relative talent. This latest one opens with Matthew McConaughey seemingly being murdered in a pub, then cuts to Charlie Hunnam (who really should quit his day job) surprised to find Hugh Grant in his house playing the kind of sleazy ‘dark arts’ tabloid PI he’s been feuding with his whole adult life with great scenery-chewing relish. Grant’s Fletcher (all the characters are conspicuously mononymous) is there to pitch Hunnam a screenplay based on his life as McConaughey’s consigliere and provide comic relief for flashbacks explaining the complicated and violent story of a takeover bid on an underground drug network. Particular highlights include Jeremy Strong’s foppish and effete rival drug lord, Colin Farrell acting like he’s in a much better movie and the film’s laughable attempts at drug slang (“White Widow Super Cheese”). It’s reasonably entertaining but the most exhausting part of watching this movie is trying to overlook its flaws, which come thick and fast in a “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” way.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence, racism, drugs, vomit, rape

No Time to Die (2021)

Where to find it: Amazon Prime Video
Length: a marathon 163 minutes
Synopsis: James Bond does improbable things in exotic locales
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: it can be pretty cool, Bond interacting with a more Millenial MI6
What I don’t like about it: tonal inconsistency, credulity-stretching CGI action

Review:
It’s a Bond movie alright! The problem is it has no idea which kind of Bond movie it wants to be. It opens very dark and stylish and seems like another Skyfall, then goes full Brosnan with laughable action and gadgets in the next scene. After that comes the obligatory overlong credit sequence / theme tune showcase, one of the images here was particularly memorable – Bond is walking through the desert among a ruined statue, calling to mind Shelley’s Ozymandius, and as the sand shifts it reveals that the statue is Brittania and the desert sand is falling through an hourglass. But then just as I’m starting to think this might actually be a good one, the first scene out of the opening titles is a joking scene set in a bio-warfare lab and featuring British comedy perennial Hugh Dennis. Like this, the tone of the film bounces up and down throughout, never quite meshing into what I’m sure they hoped it would be – a tribute to all that is 007, all at once: the cheesy one-liners and risible names (Lyutsifer Safin *eye roll*), the gadgets and action, the more-recent emotional drama and considered themes. It ends up as the worst of all worlds and falls flat on all of its themes, its incomprehensible plot and yeah-that’ll-do acting. Still, it’s a diverting blockbuster if you have nearly 3 hours going begging.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): murder, WMDs, violence and peril

The Larry Sanders Show (1992)

Where to find it: Amazon, I guess
Length: Six seasons of half-hour episodes
Synopsis: Sitcom set around a fictional talk show
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: the characters, the humour, the realism, Rip Torn hamming it up
What I don’t like about it: many of the jokes are problematic, more are just dated

Review:
This early comedy success for HBO was foundational to the boom of single-camera sitcoms in the late 90s and early 2000s – shows like Arrested Development, The Office, Extras. It finds a lot of comedy in the duplicity of its characters; avoidant and neurotic host Larry, desperate sidekick Hank and producer Artie, whose sweet and complex nature and variance in tone steal the show in my opinion. You have to be willing to overlook some very mean-spirited jokes and the occasional slur to find the funny stuff though.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): mean jokes and slurs, addiction

The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953)

Where to find it: Amazon and BritBox
Length: 83 minutes
Synopsis: English villagers work together to keep their local train service running
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: charming, witty, pretty technicolor images of the English south-west, great model shots, orchestral train-inspired score
What I don’t like about it: for a trim 83 minutes, it does start to feel stretched and samey

Review:
Set amidst the slow bloodletting of the nationalised British Railways network which preceeded the swing of Beeching’s Axe, this Ealing comedy finds a group of quirky villagers dismayed at the closing of their local railway. They seek to run it themselves and contend with many challenges along the way, often stemming from an enterprising villager who hopes to profit off the closure by running monopolised bus services in their place. Has much to say about the changes faced by rural villages in the post-war years and plenty of dry wit to keep it going – “They already closed the Canterbury line, vicar!” “Well perhaps there are not men of sufficient faith in Canterbury”. A delightful, fluffy diversion

Content notes (may contain spoilers): alcoholism, hunting scene, racism and all-white cast

Festen (1998)

Where to find it: BFI Player
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: Hard-to-watch Danish family melodrama
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: fascinating psychological drama, the theme of avoidance
What I don’t like about it: this one is going to haunt me for a long time, ending doesn’t feel cathartic enough

Review:
A party for a wealthy Danish family takes a very dark turn around the 30 minute mark, which makes it hard to pull away from as we watch the fallout through unassuming home-video-style camerawork. This film was a big influence on HBO’s Succession but even as dark as that can get sometimes, this hits horrifying lows they wouldn’t touch. It’s a very good film but not much fun at all.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): child sexual abuse, incest, suicide

The Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022)

Where to find it: Cinemas for now, Disney+ later
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: The Belchers get involved in a murder mystery
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: the song and dance numbers, characters I love from the TV show, increased animation budget and cool scene transitions
What I don’t like about it: could be better, basically an extra-long episode

Review:
Bob’s Burgers is a TV cartoon that has been running for over a decade and this, the obligatory movie version, fits in well with it. It won’t blow anyone away, especially people new to the franchise as a whole, but it’s funny and diverting and most everything one could want from a Bob’s Burgers movie

Content notes (may contain spoilers): innuendo and peril, buried alive, cartoon corpse

Wolfwalkers (2020)

Where to find it: Apple TV+
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: A curious young girl defies her father’s orders and frolics in the woods with a werewolf
Recommendation rating: 5/5

What I like about it: gosh, everything – the impressionist art style with guide lines left in, the buddy relationship between the two main girls, the themes of colonialism, urban growth and conservation
What I don’t like about it: nothing – I wouldn’t change a single frame of this movie

Review:
Cartoon Saloon is an Irish animation studio with a 100% success rate since blowing the animation world away with The Secret of Kells and this movie refines that movie’s techniques to an awe-inspiring level. The film finds us in the thick of the Plantation of Ulster and introduces us to a young girl who lives in a walled colonist city. Her father ventures out every day into the untamed, natural Irish forest to hunt wolves who are threatening the city’s woodcutters. She follows him one day and meets a girl who lives in the woods and can turn into a wolf. This sets up a conflict against the judgement of her elders as she sympathises with the wolves and attempts to stop the systematic destruction of their home. Its ripe ground for exploring worthy themes and the film doesn’t miss any of them, coming down didactically hard on the side of nature, Ireland and paganism as it jolly well should. These films are only ever made thanks to EU funding, they never seem to find an audience but they really deserve one. This film is perfect, please watch.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): cartoon (but serious) violence and peril, especially against animals; patriarchal control; fire

Hawkeye (2021)

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Six 1-hour episodes
Synopsis: The guy from the movies tries to protect a young woman and stop a threat in time for Christmas with his family
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: Hailee Steinfeld, the dynamic between the Hawkeyes, fun and followable action, the deaf stuff
What I don’t like about it: never quite delivers on its themes, these MCU things never have real stakes

Review:
The switch from movies to TV is working out very well for Disney’s Marvel project, they’re much more diverse in tone than the films, generally less dark and more fun and this is a good example of that. Partially adapted from the Matt Fraction/David Aja comic book that was the hottest thing in comics ten years ago, this series finds Clint Barton reluctantly mentoring Kate Bishop, a young and impetuous archer, as they have silly battles with the velour-tracksuited Russian mafia. In this adaptation, Clint is dragged into the situation even though he would rather be home celebrating Christmas with his family, while Kate seems to be enjoying the adventure. Impulsive youth vs. responsible adulthood is a definite theme here – “What are you, 18?” “I’m 22!” “There’s no difference.” – but it never really pays it off by having Clint tell off Kate and she really deserves it in this one, but they just play the dynamic for laughs. It’s fun but it seemed like it was going to be better around episode 3

Content notes (may contain spoilers): general superhero fighting and peril

How To with John Wilson (2020)

Where to find it: BBC iPlayer
Length: Twelve 30-minute episodes so far
Synopsis: One man’s view of New York City
Recommendation rating: 5/5

What I like about it: it’s hilarious, it’s the most neurodivergent show on TV, it makes more points in an episode than most series put together, it’s a realistic view of a city I couldn’t bear to live in
What I don’t like about it: some of the footage is uncomfortable to watch, it can be a bit formulaic after a dozen episodes

Review:
John Wilson is an anxious New Yorker who never leaves home without his camera. He has assembled this collection of footage into half-hour episodes of meditation on the city and modern life. At the start of each episode, Wilson introduces a theme and “How to…” title for the episode but it soon meanders as he gets into mischief and social adventures, interviewing weird and wonderful humans and giving us tantalising, if comedically ‘played up’, views into his personal life. His choice of footage is always wonderful and played for laughs, a favourite trick is to juxtapose what he’s saying and what he’s showing until they converge on a double meaning. Many things about the show make it feel of special interest to autistic people – there are constant attempts to explain social rules which are soon shown to be inadequate when met with human behaviour, some interactions are engineered to be extra awkward and capture (primarily) neurotypical responses, John’s obsessive documenting and editing and his adorable, (extra)ordinary life. Watch it if you can!

Content notes (may contain spoilers): real-life footage of roadkill, car accidents etc., nudity and pornography

The Dead Zone (1983)

Where to find it: Any given cardboard box full of VHS tapes, Channel 5 on a Wednesday night
Length: 105 minutes
Synopsis: A man wakes up from a coma to find he has developed clairvoyance
Recommendation rating: 1/5

What I like about it: it filled some time, has one decent shot
What I don’t like about it: it didn’t succeed at anything it tried

Review:
This movie finished five minutes ago and I’m already forgetting about it

Content notes (may contain spoilers): death, violence, fire