Best of the 2010s – 2011 - Attack the Block

Joe Cornish’s sci-fi-action-thriller takes a simple premise (hoodie thugs versus aliens in a London tower block) and complicates it by giving us a messy array of characters to contend with. We’re introduced to the gang at their most brutal and uncaring – teaming up to rob a sympathetic nurse (played by future Doctor Who, Jodie Whitaker). And their behaviour when they first meet an alien is to beat the everloving snot out of it. But once more aliens show up and they’re outnumbered and running from the monsters, we start to get a sense that maybe there’s more to these kids than just the brutal facades.

It probably helps here that the main kid, Moses, is played by John Boyega, who’s since showed his immense charisma in Star Wars, and here gets to slowly peel back the layers of a largely silent kid til we get to see what's going on inside him. And it helps that lets the aliens be genuinely menacing – in some ways, they’re not the most obviously scary creature design (they’re basically shaggy gorilla suits with glowing eyes and teeth – looking something like the creatures on the side of an old “Space Invaders” machine) but they’re effective and brutal. But it’s Cornish’s direction, that balances the terror, the action, the comedy and the heart, that makes this really work – it’s a highly successful thrill ride that has just that little bit extra to take it over the edge.

Judy

This is one of those films that has everything I kinda hate about Oscar season. It’s a biopic where the facts have been extensively massaged so that we can have simple inspirational moments (rather than the messier nature of reality), more interested in a lot of dramatic posing than in necessarily constructing a balanced informative narrative. With Rene Zellweger representing Judy Garland during her last run of concerts in London towards the end of her life, this hits some of the key points (the pills, the inconsistent performances, the gay worshippers, the creepy fourth husband), and gives Zelwegger a chance to show off her dramatic talents and some true star power. It also has multiple scenes of transparent bogusness (in particular the finale) and some very clunky writing (in particular in the flashbacks to young Judy’s years as a child star at MGM).

But dammit, Zelwegger really works in this role, particularly during the scenes where Judy’s on stage. They shouldn’t work, and their accuracy is variable (the Judy we see is nearly always presented as a consummate performer, hitting every note and electric on stage, barring one disastrous hostile audience – while in reality, Judy’s final concerts saw her cancelling frequently or stumbling off-key through a shortened set). But dammit, she’s magnetic and stunning and the film deliberately holds off the one big song we’re all waiting for til the end. In some ways this feels a bit like the recent “Stan and Ollie” – a beloved entertainer on the skids playing the UK under the sponsorship of Bernard Delfont – and like that film, it’s better as something to show a magnetic performance (or in the case of “Stan and Ollie”, two great performances), than as a particularly historically accurate or skillfully made film. It’s blatantly emotionally manipulative, bogus and with some very clunky writing. It’s also got a performance that really works and almost holds it all together by force of will. How much you like this film will rest on to how much you let the latter overwhelm the former.

Best of the 2010s - 2010 - Four Lions

With the decade ending I thought I’d run a series of retro-reviews in for my favorite new film I saw in each year of the 2010s. The first couple of years of the 2010s I must admit I’d slightly stepped away from film, so there’s a couple of big name films that are probably incredibly important that, for one reason or another, I just didn’t see in that year. But these ones I did. And they’re an interesting mix, and, if you want to diagnose me or my taste or the decade via those, I won’t object.

Anyway, my favourite film of 2010 turned out to be “Four Lions”, Chris Morris’ comedy about four muslim terrorists and the disasters that befall them. I was kinda knocked out by this – by any rational standards this is not a film that should work – the causes and implications of Muslim terrorism are complex, historic and deeply difficult to resolve – but by cutting straight to their humanity, their fallibility, their goofy male bonding – and making their folly an incredibly understandable folly (it’s not that they’re crazy so much as that they’re human), Morris succeeds at making a funny relatable film. And there’s pathos and there’s vast degrees of humanity and a firm understanding that it’s our human folly that will destroy us rather than any some vast unknowable network of evil. It’s a film that does something that should be impossible, and it does it without falling into the traps of sentimentality, or simplifying, or silliness or bitterness or lecturing. It’s inexplicable how this film works except that, somehow, it does. I’d known Chris Morris from his work in the late 90s/early 2000s as a brutal satirist. I didn’t know he could combine that brutal satire with incredible humanity and soul – that the hardest thing about knowing all this is seeing how people end up dying anyway. I was also going to note it’s a pity that the great performers from this haven’t become better known – except that the two leads are Riz Ahmed and Kayvan Novak – the first is pretty damn well known now, and the second has been working pretty constantly in the UK and is now in the US “What We Do in the Shadows” series. So that’s nice.

Hustlers

Films about exotic dancers don’t exactly have a top-notch history – your “Flashdances” and “Strip Tease” and “Showgirls” generally tend to substitute bumps and grinds for plot and interesting characters. “Hustlers” is a rare exception, partially because the true story it tells is legitimately interesting beyond the environment it’s set in, partially because it’s a film almost entirely populated by women and with very little interest in just offering cheap titillation to the audience (though the titillation when it is required is indeed fairly lively). The action starts in the late 2000s, as a struggling young woman starts exotic dancing to support herself and her grandma, learning tips of the trade from the older Ramona. After leaving the business for a failed marriage, she returns to find the financial crisis has dried up the usual sources of income, and slightly more devious methods become necessary.

Ramona is the kind of role we’ve been waiting for Jennifer Lopez to have for around 20 years (ever since “Out of Sight” showed there was a powerhouse performer here who just needed the right script). She’s tough but tender, rough and ready and incredibly intriguing. Constance Wu as the ostensible lead is never quite as fascinating, but she has a few moments as the student develops her own skills. The rest of the supporting cast also keeps things moving pretty well, as this develops into an unusual kind of crime story where capers pile up until everything shifts out of control. There’s a little bit of political underlining at the end, but in general this is a really thrilling, fun, stylish female-centric comedy-drama-crime-thriller kinda film that is way smarter than it initially looks.

The Dead Don't Die

Jim Jarmusch’s visit to the Zombie movie genre is, as is to be expected from Jarmusch, not exactly typical of the genre. It’s a bit of a Jarmusch love-in, in fact, with a bunch of people he’s worked with before (most notably Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton and Steve Buscemi) as various small-town types facing a small-town zombie apocalypse in a reasonably lackadaisical manner. It could reasonably be argued that this is, perhaps, a little too lackadaisical with nobody really all that fussed about the end of existence as they know it, and, indeed, this isn’t particularly committed to any level of reality beyond enjoying itself in a somewhat perverse manner. Swinton probably gets the highlight by getting a character who stockpiles every eccentricity Jarmusch can think of – she’s a Scottish morgue attendant who’s also a dab hand with a katana – while Murray and Driver lightly kvetch as a pair of local police who are, perhaps, a little too aware of the unreality of the film they’re in. There is one decent idea that means that the splatter is kept down to a minimum – Jarmusch’s zombies just emit a bit of dust as their combatants go about the business of decapitating them – and the very idea of casting Iggy Popp as a zombie does seem like enough genius to not matter that not a lot is done with the idea beyond just having it happen.

This is more a gentle goof than something Jarmusch seems particularly invested in making (for something a bit more heartfelt, his previous film “Paterson” is probably more your speed), but it’s harmless doodling.

Scary Stories to tell in the dark

This is a slightly odd movie as sits in a weirdly in-between audience level – it’s basically designed as young-audience horror movie, but it’s a little too intense for the very young and, perhaps, a tad too childish for teens who can seek out more adult horror fairly easily. Based on a popular-in-the-US series of children’s books, it has a very keen sense of design, and a plot that is designed to lead from horror-set-piece to horror-set-piece (and it tends to peak in the set-pieces and flail around a little when getting from A to B). It’s got a nice pseudo retro set up in the late 60s though this sorta seems to stop mattering as much later on, and some reasonably generic teen leads who get involved with a mysterious book that writes out horror stories that seem to lead to deadly fates for each of them. The design for a few of the horrific creatures have a nice feel to them, and it does play somewhat in the same retro-kids-horror field that throwbacks to the Amblin 80s films in the same way the recent “Goosebumps” and “The House with the Clock in its Walls”, without quite capturing the go-for-broke energy that either of those did. Probably this is really just for design geeks and those who want a not-too-demanding time.

Joker

An attempt to give a backstory to a character who probably doesn’t need one, “Joker” gives us a very late-seventies-early-eighties-New York looking Gotham City, as failing, mentally damaged party clown Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) is battered by society repeatedly until, one day, he shoots three stockbrokers who are teasing him on the subway. As the local reaction to his act gets ever louder, his confrontations with his past and present condition grow ever deadlier until everything boils over in an outpouring of violence.

This has all the clothing of a serious movie – the gritty setting, Phoenix’s deep immersion in the character, grim photography, an avoidance of the glossy excess that has marked other Batman-related films. But it also trades in so much ambiguity as to what’s going on inside and outside Fleck’s head that in the end it never really says anything at all clearly beyond that traumatised people pass on trauma. In particular, the Robert DeNiro sequences rely on some fairly unlikely plotting just so the film can pull off a not-very-successful “King of Comedy” riff – and the tie-ins to Batman mythology tend to be messy and reaching for relevance. I don’t believe in this grimmer-than-grim take on existence any more than I believe in other superhero fantasies happy-go-lucky take on things, and the main difference is that this is less fun and more ponderous. So no, this is not a film I particularly went for.

Birds of Passage

There's been a reasonable number of films about the drug trade in Columbia. But a lot of these tend to be city-based, and often playing with Americans falling afoul of the cartels or else caught up in their activities. "Birds of Passage" is different - it takes place entirely within the Native American Wayuu people, with outsiders barely involved, as an increased involvement in the drug trade sees traditions challenged or ripped apart as the individuals find that their children lose respect for tribal traditions, and the spiritual practices that have sustained their people fall apart.

IN some ways, the details of this are somewhat familiar - people enter into the trade thinking it is going to be an easy path to fortune, only to find greed and individual betrayal creates cycles of violence that destroy them. But playing this against a wildly different culture gives this both a radically different set of visuals and a different energy - and it's something that emerges as a strength of the piece that it's never just about these characters, but also about their connection to the culture around them. There's a little bit of a gradual start here as this isn't entirely concerned with holding a western audience's hand while we walk through the culture - beliefs and concepts are discussed as they are practiced, with us left to understand that these are important to the characters even if we haven't been filled in on the details of how they work or what they mean. It's a fascinating film that is well worth catching, both as a very different take on the drug crime film, and as an exploration of a community that we don't get to see much of.

Fantastic Fest 2019

Another year, another Fantastic Fest. 8 days, 37 movies, plus associated craziness, Q and As, a chance to interact with directors, cast, crew, and to dive into a whole bunch of genre cinema (which is to say - action, crime, thrillers, horror, sci-fi and fantasy), cinema dedicated to making sure your pulse is racing and your eyeballs and soul are engaged. This is not the festival to go for deep long contemplation of a disintegrating middle class marriage - unless that disintegrating marriage is also being attacked by enraged demonic bear. Which is not to say that it's an intellectual void - just that this is cinema that knows that a metaphor is sometimes stronger for being accompanied by something mindbendingly weird or disgusting.

This is my third go at Fantastic Fest,and I am going to take a break next year for personal reasons (rushing away to the other side of the planet for a film festival every year is fun but it does mean, this year and next year, leaving my husband, currently studying, alone at home for a little too long). I will be back, though! If you want to hear me (and two other guys) talking about the festival and my favourite films (including a probably quite self-indulgent rhapsody about one particular film), I also got a chance to record as part of the Movie Bears Podcast wrap on Fantastic Fest, which you can hear at this link here or else by picking up the 2019 Fantastic Fest episode of the podcast wherever you get your podcast feeds.

Otherwise, here's a summary of the 37 films I saw, plus a coupla extras at the end where I saw films that were showed as part of the fest outside the fest (one before the fest, and two after). 

Film 1 - Jojo Rabbit - a sweet funny occasionally heartbreaking story of a 10 year old in Nazi Germany. I giggled cried and enjoyed greatly. 4

Film 2 - First Love - boxer gets mixed up with the yakuza, a corrupt police conspiracy and a drug addicted prostitute in a Takeshi Miike movie with all the usual violence. Has a few too many subplots and doesn't always pay them off in order of least to most interesting, but there's a heap of entertaining violence and plans going haywire. 4. Film 3 - happiness of the katukuris - sweet natured family tale of guesthouses, sudden deaths and dance numbers. It's sweet and strange and a little silly - but also not quite focused. I suspect a Shinto parable about death is in here that I don't quite get. 3 Film 4 - the black pit of doctor m - Mexican 1930s horror about a psychiatrist who gets a dying friend to send him a message on what lies beyond death, but a surprising daughter, a few bottles of acid, some easily shatterable doors and an insane gypsy ensure things get complicated. It's... an okay sample but doesn't transcend it's type and is a little slow. But there's nice shadowy sets and it has its moments of thrills. 3 Film 5 - Prey - 1977 alien versus 2 British lesbians- another of its era but I think I like this set of cliches better (particularly the bitchier controlling lesbian Jo, and the slightly naive carnivorous alien. So it's a 3.5 Film 6 - the true adventures of wolfboy- A hairyfaced 13 year old receives a birthday present that will send him on a journey that is scary, emotional, inspiring, heartbreaking and amazing. I kinda loved this one - it plays the outsider tropes interestingly and with a few new spins. And there's a great payoff and a strong soundtrack. John Tuturro's slightly hammy performance is the only thing keeping this from being a 5. 4.5 Film 7 - Color out of space -Nick cage movie from the not-actually-the-director of the Marlon Brando version of island of Dr moreau about a meteorite that affects a farming family. It's strange, looks like nothing I've ever seen, drew me in, was occasionally incomprehensible and astounding. I'm tempted to dive outside all known ratings scales and give this a purple out of five. But it's a 4.5 Film 8 - rock, paper, scissors - three Argentinian siblings are reunited after the death of their father, but the one who left is held behind by the other two's increasingly desperate behavior - this was too slow and not sufficiently surprising to hold attention in a midnight slot - there's nothing here that hasn't been seen elsewhere, and it's not committed to its gruesome aspects enough to hold attention. There is a nice guinea pig in it. 2 Film 9 - Cosmic Candy - a Greek supermarket clerk obsessed with a favourite snack becomes entangled with a young girl left alone in her apartment building - a sweet study with a suitably troubled core as the woman with arrested development finds her way - with some suitably weird dream sequences. 4 Film 10 - The long walk - a Laotian timetravelling ghost story - this is a slow-burn of a film (though there is good payoff) and if you have a specific theory of how time travel is supposed to work then this probably breaks it, but it's a strong emotional experience about regrets and attempting to fix the past. 4 Film 11 - Jalikattu - an escaped bullock ignites havoc in a small Indian village as the men compete to stop it. (incidentally, this isn't Bollywood, it's Malayalam, which is india's fourth biggest film industry) - This is a case of a film that is overstuffed and uneven as hell (there are a LOT of men arguing, in a lot of subplots, and not all of these really serve to deepen the film so much as pad it out) but it's completely redeemed by a couple of moments near the ending, particularly one image that shows the power of obscure Indian cinema having access to vast armies of extras who don't appear to care about oh&s. It's unsubtle but it's a 4 Film 12 - the pool - a Thai art director sticks back after a commercial shoot at a soon-to be decommissioned pool. But when it's drained while he's resting he finds himself unable to get out... and that's just the start of his problems. A classic "how much can we Fuck over the protagonist" film that keeps tension going for the full runtime (give or take a gratuitous pizza hut plug. Thoroughly enjoyed how this played the audience. 5. Film 13 - butt boy - after his first prostate exam a man begins inserting more objects inside him - first everyday household implements, then pets and people... in some ways this is an overgrown student film and seeing it at a screening with overenthusiastic friends and family of the cast and crew wooing and over giggling was not the best environment, however I give it credit for playing the ridiculous premise straight, and going as far as it goes. The acting is variable and it has longeurs in the middle but it has a suitably ridiculous conclusion that earns it a 3.5 Film 14 - memory origins of alien - look at some of the historic, mythological and sociological background to the 1979 film - a nice deep dive that I liked better than the same directors' "78/52" - the wider focus means this isn't running on quite as narrow a groove and while Alien has been heavily analysed this still finds a few new dimensions. 3.5 Film 15 - The platform - in a Spanish pit, two men are held as part of something part punishment, part experiment. Must admit this one where I'd forgotten why I picked it beyond that I'd given it a reasonable appraisal based on the description a month ago, and I liked what I got, but part of enjoying was the discovery. It's an unsubtle metaphor but it goes all out with it so it's a 4.5 Film 16 - Fractured - bog standard thriller about guy whose daughter has an accident and he takes her and his wife to hospital only for sinister things to emerge - this kinda fails to surprise and foreshadows it's alleged big twist in the first 10 minutes, leading to a distinctly dull experience. This is a 1.5 cause... I dunno, it's in focus Film 17 - secret screening 1 (of 2) - dolomite is my name - the story of Rudy Ray Moore, musician turned comedian turned blaxploitaition cult figure - ridiculous and hilarious with great soul and a great heap of good performances. It's a warm hug of a film - the only downside, perhaps, is that it's such a loving tribute to the cult figure that it never really tries to consider whether it matters whether his work is any good. 4 Film 18 - why don't you just die - matvei is a twentyish Russian meeting his girlfriends father for the first time. He's brought a hammer with him. In five minutes he will swing it. A lot of blood follows. An extreme gorefest with just about enough plot to tie together the splatter with a ruthless sense of very Russian humour. There is a little plodding in the middle as plot plays catchup but enough twists and reversals to make this a solid 3.5 Film 19 - happy face - a Montreal support group for people with facial deformities is disrupted by a young man who has no deformities but his own issues - an engaging story about finding a community among outsiders - it does have a little bit more "inspiration porn" moments than I'd really like but there are enough moments that play against that to complicate the case that it overcomes that. 3 Film 20 - Patrick (not the Australian one or the other Australian one) - in a Belgian nudist colony, Patrick is the son of the owner and general handyman. When his hammer goes missing a quest begins that will discover a lot is hidden. Oddball charactepiece that gives a lot of nude Belgians plus a minor role for Jermaine Clement, it's nice enough but not something I flipped for. 2.5 Film 21 - secret screening 2 of 2 - The lighthouse - isolated in a lighthouse two men fall prey to their rivalries, paranoia, superstitions and nature's forces - a tense gripping piece as Robert Eggers again shows why he is in the race for best contemporary horror director (the battle is so strong between him, Are Aster and Jordan Peele that I can't call it. It's a triumph. 5. Film 22 - the lodge - in the wake of their parents divorce, two kids spend the days before Christmas in an isolated snowed in lodge with dads new girlfriend. This goes about as badly as it can. Rather blah, with only some weird religion baiting keeping it vaguely endurable. 2 Film 23 - Wrinkles the clown - a documentary about a Florida clown who parents call to scare their children, this is as much about urban myths and how they spread in the YouTube era as it is about the titular clown. There's also a twist that changes the tale a little. It's still a little rambly at 78 minutes but has enough to get to 3.5 Film 24 - ride your wave - anime about a girl who surfs, a firefighter and what draws them together in a love story that squires weirdness along the way. Loved it. It justifies some fairly extensive song plugging and goes to some decently odd mental places - it's more in the modern teen emo phase of anime rather than the Miyazaki clones, but it's a superior example with a insane climax that is simultaneously surprising and completely prepared for. 5 Film 25 - Swallow - a young woman has a rich husband and the perfect house. But then she decides to swallow a marble. And then other objects and things begin to unravel. A solid psychodrama - it slightly becomes a different film in the last 20 minutes but it wasn't a badly wrong different film. Though some of the swallowing scenes did cause me to have my own sympathetic gag reflex. 3.5 Film 26 - iron fists and Kung Fu kicks - doco about the history of Kung Fu cinema and how it's rolled out across the world - it's a solid fun doco with a lot of good angles on its subjet (it does have some curious pacing, though -trying to trim everything into 100 odd minutes while giving enough time to properly cover, say, Bruce Lee, does mean that some elements are whooshed through - not necessarily retaliatory but fun. 3.5 Film 27 - scream, queen: my nightmare on elm street - documentary about the complicated legacy of nightmare on elm street 2 and what happened to its young lead, Mark Patton - it's an important and interesting story about homophobia and the early aids era and survivors - it's also probably ten to fifteen minutes too long as it sorta reiterates a few too many points. But still a 3.5 Film 28 - synchronic - two paramedics encounter a new designer drug and suddenly it's effects hit close to home - low budget sci-fi largely playing with ideas - the main visual effects work is a good distinctive approach - with decent character work thrown into the mix. It's a 3.5 Film 29 - the death of dick long - three Alabama friends hang out practicing for their crappy band but when one of them dies and the other two try to cover up the circumstances mistakes quickly accrue - a little bit of an Alabama Coen brothers movie about men who Fuck up and the women who clear up behind them, with one suitably squicky twist. I found it funny and odd and with a strange mix of compassion and inevitable justice. It's probably a 4 Film 30 - Wyrm - wyrm has typical adolescent problems, like squabbling with his sister, dealing with his weird uncle, the death of his brother and the school requirement to kiss someone for thirty seconds to get the mandatory collar removed - a good variant on coming of age with an interesting take on societal expectations - good mix of humour and melancholy. 4 Film 31 - Dogs don't wear pants - a Finnish doctor starts visiting a dominatrix after seeing her while getting his daughter a piercing, and their limits both get stretched - fairly intense as it goes along with two look away from the screen moments but also good at giving both leads chances to be a lot more than just their fetishes. 4 Film 32 - Saint Maude - a young nurse who's recently had a religious conversion starts caring for a dancer but her obsessions take over from the care - grows in effect strongly, and Maude is one of the great nutso roles. It is a bit clunky in setup but pays off well. 4 Film 33 - Guns Akimbo - after annoying the runners of an internet death tournament by his online comments, a guy gets two guns bolted to his hands and is the next target in the tournament. Loud, over the top action with New Zealand doubling for anonymous US city, it's basically pantomime with guns, and rises or falls on how you respond to the dumb. Annoyingly it doesn't quite have enough variety of setpieces to sustain that level of dumb, but it still kept me awake for my seventh midnighter in a row, so it gets a 3 Film 34 - Phil Tippet Mad Dreams and monsters - doco about the seminal stop motion designer and his professional transition post the Jurassic Park CGI revolution - a nice summation of a key effects designer of the modern era - perhaps a little bit authorised biography but it's still strong. 3.5 Film 35 - koko-Di-koko-da - a Swedish couple post bereavement are haunted by three mysterious figures who recurringly assault them while they're camping - this is one where i appreciate the personal and individual vision but it's not quite for me - I don't know if it's just that I didn't find the people engaging or that the brutality is a bit nihilistic or that the earwormy tune is kinda a lot. 2 Film 36 - The Whistlers - an international crime gang who communicate largely in a Canary Island whistling language are infiltrated by a Romanian cop - this has a couple of interesting noir moments but most of the time is pretty by the numbers familiar. It does score with some nice soundtrack bits. 3 Film 37 - knives out - a fun old fashioned country house murder mystery with a new fashioned political side to it - it plays with the form in tricky ways, and remains fun and invigorating throughout - 4.5

Films that showed as part of the festival but I saw outside it:

I'd already seen Parasite, which showed in Slot 36, and was somewhat strongly tempted to again (particularly as director Bong Jon-Hoo was going to be present for a Q and A) - never the less, it is currently my film of the year and I'm glad it went over well with everybody I knew. If you want to read my write-up, it's at this link bit here..

Lyle (2014) showed as part of the LGBTQIA+ horror sidebar (that also included films above "Scream Queen" and "Prey") - it's an effective lowbudget thriller about two lesbians who move into a new york apartment with their daughter only to discover sinister things are brewing. It becomes apparent what horror myth this is tied into partway through, and due to the brief running time, there's perhaps one or two interesting angles that do get skipped, but it's still pretty effective and worth catching.

The other film in the sidebar was a 35mm print of "Nightmare on Elm Street 2" (the main subject of "Scream Queen") - it's indeed an oddly messy sequel that's more interesting for its subtext than necessarily what's going on onscreen, (and the final confrontation kinda doesn't work at all) but there's some good sequences in here (the opening moments, for instance, and a not-bad building paranoia) in among the messiness.

The Kitchen

This is one of those "there's major problems with this film but I liked a lot of it anway". It's a 70's gangster saga set in Hells Kitchen as three women whose husbands are sent to prison find that the Irish Mafia that is supposed to look after them instead patronises them with a pittance, and therefore start their own challenging movement against it. The three leads, Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elizabeth Moss are all pretty damn solid - McCarthy in dramatic mode at this point is often a better bet than she is in comedies, Haddish gives serious Pam-Grier-in-her-Prime vibes, and Moss enjoys a chance to embrace a bit of mild sociopathy. It does feel like someone in the studio has chopped about ten-fifteen minutes worth of character development (particularly apparent in the early stages, as the plot does a couple of big leaps in very little space), and there is a slightly uncomfortable vibe, particularly early on, that this does buy into some of the self-justification of protection rackets (that you're "looking after" people) - but there's scenes I love in this, particularly when the three get a chance to play against actors who are at their level like Margo Martindale and Domnhall Gleeson. It's a weird one where I like the details even while I'm not sure the outline entirely works. 

It Chapter Two

Back after its surprise success two years ago, "It: Chapter Two" picks up the other half of Stephen King's megasized novel, looking largely at what happend to those seven kids from Derry and how they have to come together again to fight the strange evil that takes the form of Pennywise the Clown. And, as it was a surprise success and the sequel was not guaranteed the last time, some of the bits of adaptation that were skipped last time around kinda have to get squeezed into this movie instead (meaning we do get a fair few flashbacks for more of the kids), leading to a slightly bloated runtime and a fair chunk of doubling back.

I must admit I didn't mind that as much as I might have - I enjoyed the first "It" but probably only have the vaguest notion of what went on beyond the broadest outlines (seeing around 200 movies between these probably helps with the vagaries), and I didn't find it to be the mindblowing horror experience some did so much as a good kid adventure story with horror elements. The present day elements don't always work (about half of the adult versions actually have something interesting to do, and having each split up for introduction and for an individual scare sequence each means we do have to spend as much time with the more boring ones as with the interesting ones), but there's a couple of good new sequences here, some good meta-comedy here with writer Bill (James McAvoy) being constantly told "you need to come up with better endings" - up to and including that rare thing, an entertaining Stephen King Acting Cameo. Bill Hader and James Ransome tend to steal all the best moments between them (Jessica Chastiain is slightly sabotaged in that her most interesting scene was used for the trailer, and the rest of the film tends to just use her with the personality type "girl"), and the climax is a bit of a random runaround with a monster rather than something really interesting.

Yet somehow, I didn't hate this, and I didn't begrudge it the longish running time. If, yes, the prologue probably doesn't tie into the rest of hte story as much as it should (and while it was indeed something from the book, hell, most of the book has been rethought in line with a timeshift from the 80s to the 2010s, why not rethink and reframe this bit too), and in the end Pennywise is more a great concept for a monster than necessarily a great monster, it still works, dammit, as a bigscale horror adventure story - just, perhaps, not the genre redefining one that some hoped it might be.

Angel of Mine

This Australian thriller is an odd beast - partially because of its imported lead (Noomi Rapace, still struggling to find a role anywhere near as interesting as the original Swedish "Girl with the Dragon Tatoo"), partially because of its odd focus. It's the story of a mother who's lost a daughter, and when her son meets another boy, her encounters with the other boy's family means she encounters their daughter and becomes increasingly convinced that she has a connection to the daughter.

The main problem, for me, is that this never really convinces as anything other than a teetering mountain of contrivances. Everybody seems to have taken a solid thumping with the idiot stick, taking actions that bear little resemblance to anybody. Yes, loss and mourning can cause obsession and pain, but this isn't written with any particular empathy or emotion so much as a cheesy thriller idea, and it's not quite prepared to play that with the verve or enthusasm to make the unlikliness of the exercise fun in itself, or with the delicacy and insight to make this a valuable serious drama. Instead, it's just sort of ... sludge, dawdling its way towards an unlikely finale. Of the other supporting actors, Yvonne Strahovski and Richard Roxborough do the best they can with their not-particuarly-developed characters, while Luke Evans does a fair bit less as a dull lump of wood in a suit. Not at all recommended.