Brother's Nest

This is a small scale tight thriller in the Coen-esque category concerning two brothers going back to their parents farm to straighten out a little family business. The opening dawdles a little as it sets up the dynamic between tightly-wound Jeff and his gentler brother Terry - in all honesty, of the two Jacobsen brothers, Clayton isn't very well known for acting and having just the two dominating the screen for the first thirty minutes or so does drag the pace a little. Still, once the rubber hits the road and the plot mechanics start kicking in, this is a thriller that's definitely not afraid to play for keeps, escalating in the best of ways.

I do wish this was ever so slightly better in the first twenty or so minutes because the slightly clunky beginning shouldn't put people off what turns into an enjoyably dark thriller. Certainly CLayton Jacobsen should be behind a camera again as often as possible (it's kinda ridiculous that a director who makes a movie as financially successful as "Kenny" has taken this long between gigs) - but maybe not necessarily in front of it.

Incredibles 2

Returning 14 years after the original, "Incredibles 2" picks up right after the end of the first movie with the family of superheroes battling the Underminer, a mole-like villain who's big on digging. But after their battle leaves a fair bit of wreckage behind, the process of re-integrating superheroes into public life needs a bit of a PR boost. Helen, aka Elastigirl, is called on as the most acceptable face to show off what supers can do, while Bob aka Mr Incredible looks after the kids. Of course, the combo of a new super villain and Bob handling the pressures of superpowered children means things are not going to be easy.

This is an enjoyable go-round for Pixar - if not entirely perfect (it is a little bit familiar, the surprise supervillain isn't that surprising, and there's a little bit of messy geography meaning we're never quite sure how close or far away Helen's work is to where her kids are), there's still compensations. Getting to see Elastigirl in action full-time gives some delightful flowing sequences, and there's still the nice retro-futuristic tone and big 60's style brass theme tunes keeping things thrilling in the moment. This also has a simultaneously sweet, strange and minorly disturbing Pixar short that for the thirty seconds leaves me wondering why it's animated only to clearly establish why, and to send a small message quick and easily.

Gringo

This is a peculiarly 90's style crime movie as a bunch of characters meet up and get entwined in a fake kidnapping, drug smuggling and corporate bastardry. There's a peculiar tonal dysfunction at the beginning - Joel Edgerton and Charlize Theron are the two corporate bastards whose behaviour inspires their employee, David Oyelowo, to fake his own kidnapping while in Mexico in hopes of running away with the ransom - but Theron and Edgerton are never given much interesting to do (despite both being executive producers) and are played way too self indulgently. Still, there are compensations as Oyelowo encounters other adventures that complicate his fake-kidnapping - in particular, Sharlto Copley has one of his best performances in a while as the mercanary called in to recover Oyelowo. And the ending proves reasonably satisfying as well. But the over-indulgence of the first couple of scenes still leave an uneasy taste in the mouth, so this is largely a mixed bag with some good elements.

Upgrade

In the not too distant future, nearly everybody is plugged into online systems somewhere. And after a tragedy, car-repairer Grey, paralysed and mourning his wife, finds out he can be restored by a simple chip implanted on his spine, STEM. But STEM proves to be vocal and interactive, and points Grey towards investigating the men who killed his wife and left him paralysed - and that proves to be only the start of what STEM can do....

Part body horror, part action thriller, part wild physical comedy, this is an incredibly enjoyable action-horror-thriller hybrid. Logan Marshall-Green as our hero has great physicality when his body is taken over by STEM, with his face bewhildered by what his body is getting up to - and writer-director Leigh Whannel builds the story effecitvely, widening the world and keeping us engrossed in a series of ever-escalating set-pieces. This is pure pulp but it's bloody enjoyable pulp.

Tag

This is a reasonably silly comedy about 40-something men indulging in extended childhood as an ongoing game of tag ends up lasting multiple decades. The simple setup gets complicated by four of the friends gathering at the wedding of a fifth, the one-who-has-never-been tagged, determined to catch him this time. So basically it's a live-action road-runner cartoon, with Jeremy Renner as the ubersmug road-runner and the rest being increasingly desperate coyotes.

And when the film keeps this in mind and keeps things cartoony, light and physical, this works really well. Unfortunately there are two cases in the last third where there's an attempt to darken the material for deeper significance and the attempts at depth really don't work - these characters are in no way built to carry this level of significance. This is loosely based on a true story (though the original story involves ten men, not five) and the closing credits has footage of the original guys, but it's not really a very significant story. Isla Fisher as the way-too-into-it wife of one of the taggers takes honours as funniest, with Renner's smirking target quite deliciously hateable and Hannibal Burress throwing out some hilarious non-sequiturs. So this mostly goes down pretty easy, with a couple of choke-points near the end.

Tea with the Dames

Documentaries frequently can be worth watching even when they are only mediocre productions due to the sheer interesting nature of the topic. In this case, four great English actresses, all with Damehoods (Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Littlewood and Eileen Atkins) discuss their careers and reminisce on roles, responsibilities, successes and failures.

All four do have interesting lives and stories, but the presentation means that quite frequently the context has to be imported from any knowledge you might have about the topic - the film rarely stops to explain very much at all. And occasionally stories get a little meandering with four people trying to narrate it together - a tighter edit may have been helpful. The questioning rarely gets particularly deep (which may be by design - I'm not sure we see anything that the actresses don't want to be seen). But still... there's quality in just spending time with these four legends, and in letting them tell their own stories, even if this isn't the tidiest or most direct way of doing it.

So this is pleasant but makes me wish it was better.

Hereditary

This is a deeply twisted, disturbing horror film as a family finds itself ripped asunder by their own history and by outside and hostile forces. It's probably best going to see this without any further plot advice, but just be aware this is a horror movie that plays hard and cruel, and if you have a distaste for arthouse horror, this is probably not your thing. Toni Collette proves her horror credentials as the mother at the centre of this story, with ever-rising tension. There are undoubtedly elements you can pick apart later if you really want to, but in the moment this is as good as horror gets. I readily admit I have a taste for the grand guignol side of things, and this has a fair bunch of that. IF this isn't for you... well, the next one I'm reviewing is a nice Maggie Smith/Judi Dench joint, so I'll join you for that one.

Ocean's 8

The three Sodebergh-Clooney "Oceans" movies are probably the purest example of star power and pure wit and style providing the content for what is otherwise a revisit to a very familiar genre. It only works because it's peddling like mad under the water to look completely smooth and stylish on the top.

The all-female version, "Ocean's 8", lacks Sodebergh and while it has a fair few stylish moments here and there (in particular in the central Met Gala setpiece), there's a sense that, having assembled a bunch of great actresses, it doesn't entirely know what to do with them. Anne Hathaway steals a large chunk of the movie in a self-parodying performance as an indulged celebrity, while Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock, the alleged stars of the film, keep on being stuck having to serve the plot rather than look like they're having any fun at all. The choice to make connections to the Sodebergh-Clooney films seem misguided - they don't actually borrow any of the fun but instead serve to bog the film down with connections to characters not appearing on screen.

This is not a complete write-off - the Hathaway scenes alone give this enough verve to carry off the evening- but it's disappointing it so frequently feels leaden when it should skim across the surface.

I Kill Giants

There's a reasonable number of films out there exploring children's fantasies as a cover for deeper traumas - everything from "Bridge to Terabithia" to "Pan's Labyrinth". And this is another entry in that genre - one that doubles down particularly heavily on the trauma side of thing. MAdison Wolfe, playing our 12 year old protagonist, is tough, guarded and downright unlikeable at times - her obsession with her rituals to guard against attacking giants is quite clearly an emotional wall to protect her, and we see as much how it keeps other people out as keeps her safe. 

Danish director Anders Walter has a great sense of the grim nature of the chilly woods and seashore that young Barbara traverses every day, and he gets great performances out of his cast. If there's a slip, it's that the climax feels like it resolves a little too much - the post-climax scenes give us a Barbara that's let all of her darker edges slip and is almost too damn sunny. And despite the PG rating, this is not really a film for a younger audience - the grim nature of the narrative means this'll probably alienate or scare younger audiences. But for anybody who likes their fantasy with a big spackle of mud and grit in there, this might be up your alley.

The Book Shop

This is a simple story of a woman who opens a bookshop in a small coastal English village and the cultural forces that push against her to serve their own interest (largely their desire to get the building out from under her). If it has a fault, it's that it's, perhaps, a little too mild - while there's clearly the promise that this could go far harsher, instead it's mostly kept at the level of "nice with any knives that are about firmly kept under wraps". Lead Emily Mortimer plays perhaps just that little bit too naive, never quite joining the battle for her own fate. Patricia Clarkson displays an impressive English accent and an even more impressive persona of polite steeliness, and Bill Nighy proves why he keeps on coming back to this sorta stuff by downplaying the whimsy and instead bringing an inner toughness to a somewhat wounded and initially aloof character.

This ultimately falls into the "going in the right direction but would like it to have gone further" for me.

Solo

Back to the galaxy far far away, this time we're exploring the back story of hero/rogue/smuggler, Han Solo. The usual prequel problems apply - this does have times when it's not so much story as "checklist of references to things already mentioned" - but this is pretty proficiently put together. Alden Einreich has the unenviable challenge of trying to recapture Harrison Ford's lightning-in-a-bottle charisma in this role and ... if he doesn't quite perform miracles, he's still not wildly objectionable in the role, and at least does have the right level of "quite possibly out of his depth the entire time" quality that he probably should. There are a couple of thrilling sequences (in particular, the middle of the film has one section that had me tense and excited and utterly engaged like a good action sequence should), a reasonable twisty-turny plot (although this does have the "character removes a mask but isn't actually anybody we've known about previously so I'm not sure why they bothered with the mask particularly" element.

If it slightly suffers from franchise over-confidence near the end (setting up a sequel that box office results suggest will not be readily forthcoming), and if the romance between Han and Qu'ira fails to be one for the ages, it's a perfectly serviceable sci-fi action movie whose only major flaw, perhaps, is a lack of further ambition. Still, if you can ignore that this never quite makes a case for why this movie should be made in the first place (beyond "people like this character"), it's perfectly fine.

Cargo

A virus has devastated most of Australia. Andy (Freeman) and Kay (Porter) live on a houseboat on a river with their one-year-old daughter Rosie, barely surviving on what food they can scavenge. Nearby, a young Aboriginal girl, Thoomi (Landers), keeps watch over an infected man - caring for him but keeping her distance for her own safety. With sudden tragedy, their paths will cross, and they will be forced to survive together in a dangerous and hostile country - and one of them is already infected...

This is an assured, intense horror film, both the horrors without (as the infected hover around our leads), and within (as people start to turn on one another with casual cruelty). There's a sure sense of Aboriginal spirituality from writer/director Ramke and her co-director Howling, combined with a vividly created broken-down post-apocalyptic world. Freeman, being the biggest name, dominates in a role that's very much unlike his usual work - still with the essential decency of his other characters, from Tim from "The Office" to his Watson in "Sherlock", but with greater depth, pain and eventual heroism. And a strong Australian supporting cast give this a great deal of gravity and reality. There's some cleverly layered themes of family, of the legacies of black and white Australia, and of what we carry within us and what we leave behind. Scary, relevant and heartfelt.