Tag: Review

Dumb Money (2023) Review

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Quick Synopsis: A drama comedy about the internet teaming up to take down a Wall Street hedge fund

I was really looking forward to this. It felt like a modern version of The Big Short (well, even more modern), only unlike that, it was a topic I actually knew some stuff about. Partly because The Big Short did such a good job of explaining what shorting means in regards to investments, but also because I remember this all happening, I was reading news and social media to follow it. I couldn’t give a presentation on it, but I could bluff my way through a conversation about it.

I’m lucky I did, because this is near incomprehensible if you don’t know about the events. I hate doing it, but I’m going to mention The Big Short again (and will do a lot throughout this review); I knew more going into Dumb Money than I did going into that, and yet I left Dumb Money knowing less. It’s a complicated situation, and it feels like Dumb Money expects you to be knowledgeable about the subject going in. There’s no effort made to bring you up to speed, resulting in a confusing mess.

The sense of confusion is not helped by the directing. I don’t get how this was made by the same person (Craig Gillespie) as I, Tonya and Cruella. Those two were slick masterpieces of visual storytelling, whereas this feels like it’s trying waaaay too hard. The editing, in particular, feels like a case of “will do for now, tighten it up later”. It is reminiscent of of obnoxious youtubers mixed with dickhead 90’s skateboarders where random things get overlaid with cartoon images and silly faces. In the end it just felt kind of immature, like it knew it wasn’t explaining itself properly so just went “look, random!”

None of this is on the performers; all of whom are great in what they do; it’s just that whenever it feels like they get momentum, the film pulls away and starts showing over people. It either needed to be pared down, or do a much better job of screentime distribution.

It also has an issue with how it relates to the real world. It doesn’t feel like it does. We get news footage of people talking about it, but it feels weirdly isolated from reality, like it takes place in its own bubble away from the rest of the world.

It has its fun moments though, there are some moments of real emotional depth and seriousness. And the moments featuring the real court testimony is nice to see. But it’s not fun enough to be truly enjoyable.

It’s possible I’d like this more if I hadn’t watched The Big Short, but since I have, comparisons between the two are inevitable, and there’s not a single area in which this is preferable. It is a shame, as on it’s own it’s a 5/10, but in a universe where a better version exists; it’s knocked down severely. Everything in it has been done better, and recently. Even the song choices.

Past Lives (2023) Review

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Quick synopsis: Childhood sweethearts are torn apart then reunite decades down the line and wonder what could have been in this powerful story from Celine Song

Past Lives is divisive. You will either be entranced by it’s beauty, or bored senseless. It requires you to be an active watcher. Usually, when I say this it’s because it’s so intricate that if you turn away you risk missing important plot points (as is the case for They Cloned Tyrone, spoilers for a future review). But with this, there are not really important plot points to miss out on. You can watch 1 minute every half hour and figure out what’s happened, character motivations etc. So why do you need to be an active watcher? Because you need to be in a position to let it overwhelm you. You can’t go in half-arsed, you need to be fully immersed for it to work. You can’t watch it whilst looking at your watch, talking to someone, or wondering what you’re going to make for dinner, if you did that it would break the immersion. I think that’s why it’s going to do better with reviewers than audiences; I can see casual movie-going audiences tuning out and not really being entranced by the ethereal beauty contained within. And this is a beautiful watch. I’ve seen films described as rollercoasters, or in some cases a car-crash, this is more like lazily drifting down a river in the arms of a loved one; the soft rocking and gentle noises lulling you into a sense of serenity (not the Firefly movie).

It is really hard to talk about this because it’s something that feels like it hypnotises you whilst you watch it, which makes it hard to judge once you’re no longer in the moment. I’m not sure how well it would stand up if you watch it on a normal screen in daylight rather than in a darkened cinema. Whilst you’re watching, you will enjoy it. But you will be aware of its flaws; there are a few times when it repeats itself and lingers slightly too long after it’s made the point and the mood has been set. The shots are beautiful in their simplicity. There’s no “wow, that’s a stunning shot”, but every shot feels carefully chosen not so much to tell the story, but to set the mood. The choices made were all about setting the atmosphere, and it’s hard to find better choices they could have made. To be honest, it somehow felt like it wasn’t a film, but was a story we were witnessing play out in front of us. We aren’t an audience, we’re a witness, sitting in the room with them observing what’s happening. This lends the whole thing a sense of intimacy. Everything feels human and full of love.

The sense of humanity and love is enhanced by the performers. Teo Yoo and Greta Lee share an undeniable chemistry. To the point where a scene of just the two of them sitting somewhat near each other is rife with romantic tension. Individually they’re great too; Teo Yoo has leading man energy, and Greta Lee will be something special in the near future; she has genuine Best Actress energy.

I felt genuine love for Past Lives, its themes, the central romance was believable and you wanted them to be together, the emotion behind it etc. But will it be among my favourite films of the year? Possibly. It will be up there, but won’t be first on the list. I get the feeling that in the future Nora Song may make what I consider to be one of my favourite films of all time.

Barbie (2023) Review

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Quick synopsis: Do you really need me to say it? I mean, odds are you’ve already seen this so….

This film is big. That much is obvious by now. It’s the highest-grossing film by a female director, has reached $1billion dollars quicker than any other Warner Bros property (and that includes the Harry Potter films), and is now their highest-grossing film ever. It’s also the highest-grossing film of the year, beating The Super Mario Bros. Movie. This pleases me. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (or TSMBM for short, pronounced Tisembum) was good, it was very funny in parts. But it didn’t strike me as something that deserved to hold records. This does. It is, as one of my friends put it “everything”. It’s incredibly smart, it’s funny, has a killer soundtrack, great look, and memorable music, essentially it has almost everything you want in a film.

I suppose I have to add a bit more to this don’t I? Balls.

There was a lot of trepidation when this was announced. Audiences were worried it was going to be another soulless cash grab, completely devoid of originality or anything worthwhile. Then the first trailer was released, and people started to come around to the fact that there’s a possibility that it’s actually going to be batshit insane. I can confirm, it is. But not in a “weird for the sake of weird” way, or even in a “confusing” way. More in a “this feels like a child wrote it”, it makes narrative leaps that seem weird, but they do have a logic to them.

Margot Robbie is perfect for playing Barbie. It’s weird though; she’s the lead, the title character, but she is slightly overshadowed by both Ryan Babygoose’s Ken and America Ferrera’s Gloria. It could be argued that it’s more about the narrative arc of Ken than it is about Barbie, and it’s hard to disagree that he’s given more characterisation as the film goes on. He also has the best musical moment with I’m Just Ken. Gloria wasn’t given much attention in the marketing, but she provides a lot of what makes Barbie more than you’d think it would be. Because she’s a human character she’s given more dimensions to work with, whilst also working as the audience surrogate.

In terms of look? It looks unique. It’s made to look like the whole thing takes place in a toy universe. Some ways are obvious, but then there are other ways which are a bit more subtle; the way everything is scaled slightly incorrectly etc. Greta Gerwig did a fantastic job with the look of this, making it look so fake and plastic that ironically it looks real.

Now onto the bad; there are a lot of performers who feel underutilized. Will Ferrell’s character for example could be taken out of the script and it would require only minimal adjustments to fill the narrative hole left. The Ruth Handler moment could also be played a lot better, as it is it kind of feels like a “we’ll do this now, but think of something better later” script idea. It could maybe go a bit more traditional in the third act, where it seems like it’s throwing everything against the wall, most of which works, but some don’t. It did feature my own personal highlight; Gloria’s monologue about modern femininity which she uses to break the brainwashed Barbies out of their spell. It encapsulates the best of what Barbie achieves; it’s the kind of dialogue which can only be written by a writer who is either a woman or is paying a lot of attention. It’s important, but also doesn’t feel overly preachy.

I mean, some people were still annoyed by it, describing it as “anti-men”, but those people were looking to hate it anyway. I saw some commentators saying that the beginning of the film was pro-abortion because it features children throwing away dolls of babies. Anybody with intelligence would have recognised it as a tribute to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but then again people who add lies about how “they then all screamed Kill All Babies” aren’t exactly overflowing with intelligence. There have also been people who claim that Barbie visiting a gynaecologist at the end is a pro-abortion message; because obviously that’s all gynaecologists do. F*cking idiots.

I mentioned the opening; it does a really good job of explaining WHY Barbie matters. Make no mistake; she does matter. She’s had a huge influence on life, to the point where it’s not crazy to say that there is a little bit of Barbie in all of us; and not just because of the microplastics we ingest on a daily basis that are slowly killing us.

Nope, I’m not ending with that. I’m ending it with the biggest downside of this film. Because it was so successful, studios obviously will want to recreate the success. Will they do that by giving critically acclaimed indie directors a big budget and creative freedom? Or by getting scriptwriters to focus on delivering intelligent, subversive scripts? Or will they do it by just making films based on toys, no matter the quality?

It’s the last one.

Fuck.

The Equalizer 3 (2023) Review

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Quick Synopsis: Denzil Washington accidentally fights the mafia.

I didn’t mind the first Equalizer film, but I was less impressed with the second, mainly because I found it overly long, with the non-action scenes in particular dragging. I also found it had a twist that was incredibly obvious. This fixed the mistakes of the second one; it doesn’t feel as long, it doesn’t aim for a big twist, and it calms down on the “he’s a good, such a good, real good person” aspects which plagued the second one. Overall, I think it’s probably the best one of the three, it’s certainly the one I’m more likely to watch again.

It’s not perfect, it does drag slightly, and there isn’t that much meat on the narrative bones to make it fully satisfying. The music choices are a bit odd, feeling like they’re aiming at a younger audience than the rest of the film. And as good as Denzil is (and he is good in this role), the cuts around his physical limitations are getting more noticeable.

Now onto the good; it always surprises me how brutal these films are. In my head they’re all “someone gets shot and they fall down” and that’s as violent as it gets; all squibs and crash mats. But nope, it’s bloody. It doesn’t build up to it either, it starts with the aftermath of a bloody massacre; as openings go, it’s certainly one of the most shocking.

I haven’t seen the first two since I watched them at the cinema, and I only remember bits and pieces from them. That doesn’t seem to matter though, the only character to return is the main one. There’s an allusion to the previous films at the end (via a TERRIBLY photoshopped picture) but it’s shot in such a “THIS PICTURE IS IMPORTANT!” way that anybody who understands film language (and who knows this is a sequel, but the 3 in the title should be a big indicator of that) would understand “okay, that’s her parents, and her parents obviously know Robert McCall, that’s why he phoned her”.

There’s been a lot of love for the action scenes in this, so I won’t repeat ground others have already plowed over, instead I’m going to praise something that I feel hasn’t got enough love; this has the best explosion scene I’ve seen in a long time. Usually, explosions in cinema are just a big bang, but if you are not in the immediate zone you’re fine. In fact, if you duck or jump, you’re normally fine, and once the explosion itself is over everything is back to normal. This shows the risk that being in the general area has. Instead of feeling like a bit of a shock, it feels like something which gives everyone in the local area PTSD. That’s something which this series has always excelled at; they’ve always been technically good. They’ve also maintained a good sense of visual and tonal continuity. Probably because, unlike a lot of other action franchises, they’ve all been made by the same director; Antoine Fuqua. Keeping him on for all three means that all three flow together well. It doesn’t reach the heights of the Planet Of The Apes trilogy, but there’s not as many differences between the three. If you really enjoy one, you’re going to really enjoy all three of them.

I think the franchise is closed now (outside of the TV show). It hasn’t changed the industry, or even became that critically acclaimed. But what this series has done, is be dependable. You know what’s going on with this, and sometimes, that’s all you want from something.

Blue Beetle (2023) Review

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Quick synopsis: Jaime Reyes finds himself the unwilling host of an alien symbiotic host. Why, yes, this is very similar to Venomn, why do you ask?

I am not really a comic book guy. I enjoy them, and I know a little bit about them, but there are just so many of them that I have to be honest, I don’t know where to start. I read the ones I have heard are important, or are super fucked up (Hello Gail Simone’s horror graphic novel Clean Room, you delightfully terrifying bitch. The book is a terrifying bitch, Gail Simone is a treasure who must be protected at all costs). So I’m not that familiar with Blue Beetle as a character. Let’s be honest though; that shouldn’t matter. A lot of people won’t agree with me here but I think the only thing that matters in these films are the movies themselves. If it doesn’t happen in the movies/TV shows, it doesn’t happen. You shouldn’t need to do research to watch a film, it should all make sense in its own universe. “oh, but that plot point is actually easily explained if you read issue 155 of the original comic from 1948”, nope, fuck that.

All of that is my long-winded way of saying I went in relatively blind as to the character. It didn’t matter though, he was written well enough that you knew what he was like very early on, the same goes for the background characters too. The family could be annoying; they’re loud, boisterous, and pushy. But they’re all written and played with just enough warmth and reality that they work. At different points they’re almost all highlights. Belissa Escobedo provides an almost Aubrey Plaza performance in her role as Jaime’s sister Milagro. George Lopez has his moments, giving a lot of the best lines. Adriana Barraza gives a kick-ass performance as Nana, starting off exactly as you expect her to be, but then evolving into a character you want to know more about; if anybody from this series deserves a prequel comic book it’s her; her backstory is rich with possibilities. It’s a shame the future of the DCEU is up in the air because I want to see more from these characters.

So, that’s the characters, but is the film itself any good? It’s…..good. That’s all it is. It’s probably in the top half of the DC films but that’s only because a lot of them have been pretty shit. It faces the problems that a lot of DC films have had lately; it’s just “there”. There’s not much about it that’s new or surprising. Yes, it is important to have a non-white superhero, and the stories involved in that do need telling. But it would be useful if the story being told was being told in a good way. The hints of gentrification etc are great, but it’s never really given enough focus. It’s also quite sad that (just like Green Lantern), when he’s given a power which involves “creating whatever you can think of” the results aren’t more creative. There is also an issue with one character’s geography in the closing third. He seems to change locations quite a lot, randomly going from one set of characters to the next with no indication of how close the two locations are.

Overall though, it is a fun watch, and you will enjoy yourself while watching it. The moment where the scarab enters Jaime contains great body horror moments, and if we were shown more creativity like that it would be incredible. As it is, it’s just good, but a month after you watch it, will you be dying to watch it again? Probably not.

The Blackening (2022) Review

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Quick Synopsis: Seven friends go away for the weekend and find themselves locked in a cabin with a serial killer who forces them to play a pretty damn racist board game.

The review of this will be positive, but I’m going to start it with something negative. I am not a fan of Tim Story for two reasons;

1) He made the execrable 2021 Tom and Jerry movie.

2) He made the 2005 Fantastic Four movie. I haven’t seen that one so I can’t judge it based on quality, but he was a proper dick to Jessica Alba during filming, criticising her crying for being too realistic as it made her look “ugly”. He also refused to add any physical depth to her character, not letting her get any damage that would affect her looks (not even dirt). So whenever I hear his name mentioned, I think “asshole”. I have to admit though; The Blackening is one damn fine piece of cinema.

The Blackening does everything it’s supposed to; it has some good scares, setpieces, deaths etc., and is also really funny. It also refuses to hold your hand, which I love. It’s incredibly black, with no effort made to tone that factor down. The card game Spades is a huge part of the story, not only being played but also being used as character motivation. They don’t explain how to play the game, only giving allusions to what are considered mistakes to make in the game. So you’re forced to do something most movies don’t make you do, pay attention. It makes sense, if you’re playing a game with your friends or family, and you all know how to play it, why would you explain how? The assumption is you already know.

That’s part of what makes these characters feel like real people, they’re all written so that it feels like they have a life outside of this film. They all performed well too, with the possible exception of Jermaine Fowler as Clifton. I get what he was going for, but it seems a bit too cartoonish compared to the relatively realistic and grounded nature of the rest of the performances; it’s like everybody else is in a horror, and he’s in a comedy. Some people may like what he did, but it just wasn’t for me. The rest of the cast are great though. X Mayo brings so much energy to this and owns every comedic beat she’s given, whilst Grace Byers brings the dramatic performance needed.

The reveal of the killer is a bit weak too, it tries to be a twist but it’s far too obvious to anybody who has ever seen a film. I haven’t seen a killer reveal this obvious since Scream VI. But it doesn’t harm The Blackening as much as it did Scream, because working out the killer is not as big a deal in this. It can be argued that The Blackening isn’t about the reveal, and is more about the experience you have watching it. I’d also argue the soundtrack could be improved somewhat, but it does feature a reference to Lift Every Voice And Sing, which is always appreciated.

In summary, if you’re a horror fan, particularly of the slasher genre, then watch this. It’s one of the best modern additions to the genre in a long time, and it’s so much fun.

Scrapper (2023) Review

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Quick Synopsis: 12-year old Georgia (Lola Campbell) is living on the edge of her seat after the passing of her mother. She’s then surprised by her long-absent father (Harris Dickinson) turning up.

I knew nothing about this going in, I didn’t even know it existed. I went to a secret preview screening, assumed it would be for Meg 2, and was baffled when this came up. It wasn’t just me, the general noise from the audience was “huh?”. Not many people left though. I wouldn’t say that Scrapper caught my attention immediately, but it did show its charm relatively early on. We learn quite early on that 12-year-old Georgie is living on her own after her mother died, tricking the school and social services into thinking she’s living with an uncle. Ordinarily, especially in British cinema, this means the following 90 minutes are going to be super depressing and bleak. So it’s a surprise that this is weirdly heartwarming and sweet. It’s like a weird B-side to Aftersun. Aftersun felt like a home video that was being watched in full, openly candid and laid bare for all to witness. Scrapper brings to mind a child hastily editing their home movies, covering up their pain with quick asides.

Scrapper was written and directed by Charlotte Regan, and in lead Lola Campbell, she’s found a fantastic conduit for her ideas. The character Lola plays, Georgie, never feels overwritten. Her behaviour and dialogue feel genuine, which helps the charm Georgie has. One of the first scenes of her is her being caught stealing a bike and blagging her way out of it. If this was written wrong, or performed wrong, then she’d seem like an annoying little shit. But everything about it works so well together that you can’t help but root for her.

The performance of Harris Dickinson is a surprise. He normally plays quite posh characters, so for him to play her dad Jason as well as he does takes talent. Jason is a suspicious character, he abandoned Georgie when she was a baby, and now spends his days giving fliers to tourists in Spain. Dickinson has a delicate line to walk; is Jason a criminal, a feckless good for nothing, or just generally a bit lost but trying his best? He has to make you think all three are possible, and he does it well. He and Lola have incredible chemistry, there’s a fun playfulness between the two, but it’s a playfulness filled with uncertainty and quiet mistrust.

The mistrust and uncertainty should lead to a great third-act conflict, but it doesn’t. The relationship between the two is so sweet and is built up so well that the plot-mandated divide between the two should be heartbreaking, and the resolution at the end should be incredibly sweet. As it is, the conflict between the two feels relatively minor, and the way it’s solved seems really pedestrian. It’s solved by something that the film treats like a huge revelation that changes everything but is really just kind of bland. It’s a shame, a film like Scrapper deserves a great ending. It sets up all the pins perfectly, but then flubs knocking them down.

That doesn’t distract from the fact that this is a remarkable film and hopefully leads to great things for Lola Campbell and Charlotte Regan. I hope they work together again, but I’m sure even if they don’t then they’re going to do something incredible. They’ve already done something very good.

Strays (2023) Review

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Quick Synopsis: A heartwarming tale about a tiny dog (Reggie, voiced by Will Ferrell) on his quest to reunite with his owner……….so he can bite his dick off.

This film is filthy. The talking animals may lead you to believe it’s a cute film, but it’s not; it’s incredibly sweary and sexual. This can work; Joy Ride has been my favourite comedy of the year (so far). I will admit though, there are times whilst watching Strays where it all felt a bit much. It felt like the film was being crude for the sake of being crude. Sometimes the jokes are coming so quickly that this isn’t a problem, you can just move on to the next joke and recover. But a few of the worst jokes in this are the recurring ones, so they’re hard to ignore when they linger over the movie like a wet fart. It’s a shame as Strays is hilarious at times, there are moments where it’s whipsmart, with some laugh-out-loud dialogue. It also has more heart than you expect it to, the backstory given to Bug is brilliant, elevating the character to something better than you thought it was. The love story between Maggie and Hunter is also kind of sweet. The key emotional part is Reggie and his relationship with his owner Doug (played by Will Forte in absolute detestable form, it’s brilliant). You can tell a lot of the scriptwriters’ attention was on this section; making sure it plays as it should; reminiscent of an abusive romantic relationship, but without seeming like you’re making light of it.

The relationship allusions are really well done, the PTSD Doug has got, and the realisation that being mistreated is not how a healthy relationship should go. It’s an interesting way of approaching a very delicate topic, and it works. This also means that the revenge at the end feels earned, it doesn’t feel like a quick impulsive decision; but the inevitable result of years of tension and mistreatment. In case that wasn’t enough, Doug does go into full dickishness just before the end; getting incredibly fed up with Reggie and threatening to beat that bitch with a bat.

Yes, I know that “beat that bitch with a bat” reference doesn’t really work. Bitch applies to female dogs, and Reggie is male. So whilst at first it may have been an acceptable joke to make, if you think about it for more than a second, it just feels a bit lazy. A bit like this film(can I get some applause for how I managed that segue btw? Nope, damn). Because whilst the Reggie/Doug relationship (or, as shippers call it: Rug) works and is well-written. A lot of the moments feel underdeveloped. Whilst Reggie and Bug are strays (hey, that’s the title of the movie), two of the other foursome aren’t; with one being a therapy dog at an old folks home. There’s not much attention paid to how the owners/home residents react/feel about their dogs running away. Even just a 5-second cutaway of a confused old person stroking a rug or a coat and thinking it’s their dog would have closed that issue and provided a quick laugh. It feels like the writer just thought “But who’s going to think about that?” and moved on. Well, I thought about it Mr. Writer Man, I thought about it. And it just feels lazy. There are other moments that don’t work if you think about them for more than a second. If it went through a few rewrites it could be amazing, as it is, it’s just good. It’s destined to be thought of just as “Oh yeah, I watched that once” and then forgotten again.

Gran Turismo: Based On A True Story (2023) Review

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Quick Synopsis: A player wins a series of Nissan-sponsored video game competitions through his gaming skills and becomes a real-life professional race car driver.

Yes, colloquially this is known as Gran Turismo, and if you tell people about it, you’re going to say “I saw Gran Turismo at the cinema”, but the official title (at least in UK markets) is Gran Turismo: Based On A True Story (or GT: BOATS, pronounced Git Boats). I say that now for two reasons: one is accuracy. The other is because it’s a stupid f*cking title. It’s a title that feels like it was decided by a committee with no idea how actual people talk. That sums up the experience of watching GT BOATS, to be honest. It has no emotion, no personality, it’s film as product and marketing rather than storytelling. There’s no actual humanity to the whole thing. It attempts it; the moment where Mardenborough crashes and kills a spectator is the closest the whole thing gets to showing genuine emotion. Fun fact; the crash did happen to the real Jann Mardenborough (who plays his character’s stunt double in this, which I thought was a nice touch). But it didn’t happen when he was training. In real life it happened four years into his career, in this, it is showcased as an event which motivated him to a podium finish. Some may say this is disingenuous, but Mardenborough wanted it in there, saying “It would have been a disservice for the audience for that not to be in there”. Would it? Would it really? Also, at the wish of sounding rude, that’s not your decision to make, yes you were injured, but someone else died. So unless you got permission from the family, then it feels kind of exploitative. Tbh, it feels that way in the film itself, even without the wider context. The fact that someone died is given away in dialogue that’s almost throwaway. The film seems to be saying: yes, somebody died, but look on the bright side, it inspired the lead character to win so it’s all good.

None of the faults of this film lies on the head of the performers btw. Archie Madekwe has a great screen presence and could have a good future ahead of him. David Harbour seems to be doing his best impression of Tough Enough Season 5 era Bill DeMott (just without the sexual and physical abuse). Orlando Bloom seems to be transitioning out of his heartthrob era, and I’m all for it. Not every performance is worth a positive comment though: Djimon Hounsou is completely wasted in such a small role, and he’s not helped by the fact he has to act alongside Geri Halliwell. Well, I say “act alongside”, it feels more like he’s acting against her, with her utterly dismal performance dragging him down with her. I’m sure her being married to the team principal of a Formula 1 team had nothing whatsoever to do with the choice to cast her. I kind of hope she was forced upon the production because I can’t bear to stand the idea that someone saw her performance and thought “Yup, she’s the best choice”.

It’s a shame I didn’t like this as it is an interesting story. Someone being chosen to join a race team because they were good at a video game is a fascinating story. But it shows its hand far too early. It’s so desperate to tell you how realistic the game is, that it never gives us any reason to doubt that he’s actually a good racer. There’s no “but will the skills be transferable?” conflict, he’s almost immediately very good. He goes through the training programme very quickly. Personally, I would have liked to have seen more of that. The section with the group of gamers training and being evaluated is the most interesting part of the film. Partly because there’s an interesting set of characters, all of whom are flawed but still likeable. They’re all in the same position, and from all over the world so you have a wealth of eclectic characters to work with. Instead, the film spends most of the time with the background characters being a group of spoiled rich dicks, but never focusing on or fleshing them out. They’re more annoyances than proper antagonists. The shift from “training camp” to “driving in Le Mans” also changes how some of the other characters are; they go from potential antagonists to helpful friends. It’s completely inconsistent and means we don’t really have much of a conflict. It’s all “Will he become a proper driver” when we know he will otherwise there’s no story. If he was working against somebody then at least they’ll be something there the audience can latch onto.

The lack of a compelling narrative might have been easy to ignore if it at least looked good. But it doesn’t. It looks too much like a video game, even when it’s not meant to. The scenes where it’s supposed to look like a video game are a weird choice. There are videogame style overlays over some of the races, to indicate how he sees the world. But it makes it seem TOO much like a video game. Having someone say “This isn’t a video game” and then making it seem exactly like a video game slightly undermines the message, somewhat. The races don’t look that exciting. There are too many close-ups of the internal machinery firing up etc, I’m sure for people who like cars it means something, but to everybody else, it just looks like small bits of metal and fire doing shit. There’s not even a decent soundtrack to the whole thing.

How To Blow Up A Pipeline (2022) Review

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Quick Synopsis: A group of eco-warriors are frustrated that they’re not being taken seriously, so plan to blow up a pipeline

First off, I am very glad this appeared on Netflix because it means I didn’t have to google “How To Blow Up A Pipeline” (or HTBUAP, pronounced Huh-tub-wapp). My research for horror scripts has already probably already put me on a list.

Films can inspire a lot of different reactions in people. In 2023 alone I’ve had surprise from Missing, joy from Shazam, and utter boredom from The Pale Blue Eye. This? Well considering I mentioned in my Holy Spider review that the theme for this week is anger; you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this made me angry; in a good way. I wasn’t angry in a “this film sucks” way, I was angry in a “how is everybody okay with this happening?”

Everybody in it is frustrated, they’re not annoyed at what may happen, they’re not dealing with “in a hundred years” hypothetical situations, they’re dealing with current consequences, and they’re consequences which people in real life are dealing with. There’s no “but maybe in the future if”, these are things that are happening: farmers are losing their livelihoods from chemical spills killing off their livestock/crops, people ARE being forced from their houses so that companies can build pipelines, people ARE getting cancer due to the effects of pollution. It’s easy to ignore these things when you’re not presented with them, but when you are then it infuriates you. People criticise climate protesters for being angry (even if they’re just standing there waving signs), but after watching things like this; if you’re not angry then you’re not paying attention. It would be easy for this film to come off as preachy or anvilicious. Crucially; there isn’t some big oil baron as the villain, because there’s not one person to defeat to stop this; it’s a systemic problem.

But it’s a problem everybody is encouraged to ignore. The current policy of “If you’re not happy with the planet burning, write a polite e-mail and then the government might do something if they find it profitable”. This is probably because of the way that civil rights are taught. It’s best summed up by one line from the film:

“Anytime anyone has challenged authority they call it terrorism, then when the terrorism works they lie about the legacy and say that it was all passive nonviolent kumbaya bullshit.”

HTBUAP definitely doesn’t shy away from pointing out how everybody regarded MLK as a ruthless terrorist back in the day, and it’s only after he won that public opinion changed. The fact that it reminds you of this is a good indication of how important films like this are.

But is it any good? Yes. It’s engrossing, the non-linear aspect allows us to connect the actions to the consequences, and the motivations. Daniel Goldhaber has a history in horror, a genre which (when done well) is all about gathering sympathy for characters and creating good ensemble chemistry. The cast is fantastic. Ariela Barer, in particular, has a fantastic presence and is utterly captivating to see. HTBUAP is incredibly well made, and it’s quite telling that most of the negative reviews focus on the premise rather than how it’s carried out. I know that’s somewhat hypocritical considering how I spent half this review, but I’m not a paid reviewer for a national newspaper.

It’s not a perfect film, it could definitely stand being trimmed or adjusted slightly so that it doesn’t drag as much as it does. The music could stand out more, there’s a litany of suitable music to choose from, played by artists who I’m sure would love to stand alongside this film, but as it is it’s mostly just “there”. It also could stand to focus more on the outside world; for a topic that affects us all, it feels incredibly localised. It could definitely stand to do what Blackkklansman did and end it with a news montage of the real-world effects of what we’ve seen.

I do have to say though; this has the best website of any film this year. It perfectly matches the themes; with resources for activists who were inspired by it, as well as a free e-book of the book the film is based on. I like that, it shows that the filmmakers are not doing this as performative showmanship activism, they actually care about what happens and want things to change. And for a film like this, you NEED that.

You also need to probably space your watching of it out so you don’t go out and punch strangers in anger.