Honey Boy

This is slightly like watching someone else's therapy with the names mildly changed. Shia LeBoef wrote and stars in this story of a child actor whose relationship with his father is best described as "mixed" - he's the sole source of income for his father (as dad chaperones him on film sets) and his dad is his main role model (LeBoef plays the dad). We know this didn't go well as we're also introduced to a twenty-something version of the kid as he goes through his third try at rehab, attempting to process this (Lucas Hedges is good if slightly miscast as he matches neither with the kid playing his younger self nor looks particularly Jewish, which dialogue establishes this kid is). It results in a visually impressive and heartfelt film that, if it never really tries to deal with a fully rounded plot, exposes something raw and moving.

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears

Reasonable nonsense without ever really transcending its TV origins, this knows what the audience is here for (basically, Essie Davis looking fabulous in a bunch of different outfits dropping bon mots and solving crimes) and gives us as much of it as possible (she gets through four costume changes in the first ten minutes). It's at least partially aware of its own absurdity, but the actual plot tends to drag just a bit as the mix of ancient curses and British skullduggery in and around 1929 Palestine never really adds up to anything particularly special. There's not a lot around Davis to really get invested in (even Miriam Margoyles, usually a guaranteed scene stealer, doesn't get much to do), though there is a lot of period charm in the sets and costumes. Still mostly enjoyable.

The Call of the Wild

A reasonable example of a dog-story (and frankly, I'm glad the dog looks a little CGI stylized - films with real looking dogs going through these kinda stunts make me uneasy as I worry about how many dogs got hurt or maimed along the way). While the plot is largely an odd collection of incidents as Buck goes from pampered judge's dog to Sled Dog to Harrison Ford's Best Friend, there's some decent moments along the way, along with a collection of weird stuff (including getting Bradley Whitford in a Southern-style-mansion-with-slaves that inevitably invokes "Get Out", and Dan Stevens channeling the soul of late-period Cary Elwes as a foppish villain). Harrison Ford's narration plays like the narrative blu-tack that it is, though when he's actually on screen he's not nearly as sleepy as he is in voice over (he does appear to enjoy being round CGI the Dog). And it's touching and adorable and probably has no resemblance to anything that's actually happened in nature or any theories of animal behaviour ever, but I still mostly enjoyed it.

Fantasy Island

Look, in many ways this is a mediocre horror movie stapled onto a pre-existing property (the 1970s anthology-by-stealth series where various guest stars experienced "be careful what you wish for" fates on a weekly basis). This time Michael Pena takes over the Montalban mantle, keeping suitably mysterious as our master of ceremonies, with a bunch of middling actors mostly with CW backgrounds as the guests, And yeah, this is, to a certain extent, gory soap opera - but dammit, I liked that in the late 90s and I like it now. There are a tonne of dumb twists piling up here, and I can't guarantee some character behaviour makes a lot of sense ... but never the less, I didn't actually hate this, for reasons that probably say more about me than they do about the movie.

Emma

This is a pretty solid Jane Austen adaptation with a bit of wit, romance and, yep, a random butt shot early on (apparently someone wanted to up the stakes on the Colin Firth Wet-Flouncy-shirt scene from the BBC Pride and Prejudice). There's strong visual style and enjoyment of the period, though it does take a while for this to really settle into being fun - the set-up of so many characters and side plots does take a while (and this doesn't top "Clueless" in getting that out of the way early). Anna Taylor-Joy enjoys a chance to do British snobbery for a bit, Johnny Flynn is damn good looking as the leading man type she's going to end up with, Bill Nighy kinda steals every scene he's in with sardonic side glances. Once it's settled into its groove this pays off pretty reasonably for those looking for a period romp.

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

Enjoyable but shallow, this uses some of the style of "Suicide Squad" in a far more coherent manner. While it's got the standard shopping bag of requirements most superhero movies seem to have (further adventures of one antihero, introducing three more new heroes, a sidekick and two villains), this pulls it off reasonably well. While a lot of the early-movie adventures do slightly lack an individual style (only the nightclub scenes really get a decent set, and everything else feels a little like it's on a generic street scene backlot), the last act finds an enjoyable way to stage action scenes (with fights that actually feel weighty and violent, rather than the usual airless scrapping and posing). Robbie's very much at the centre and manages to keep Harley on the right side of manic pixie psychotic, with Rosie Perez getting most of the serious plotting, Ewan McGregor getting to be a sleazy bad guy and Mary Elizabeth Winstead largely being enigmatic for most of the movie before being hilariously straightfaced to the rest of the nutso shenanigans. This isn't top flight stuff, and it probably is going to suffer from being a little too violent for family audiences, but for those of you who want a female led action movie, this does pretty darn well.

The Peanut Butter Falcon

A gentle piece, this has a little bit of a 90s-Sundance-Movie feeling, a story of three people on a road trip - in this case, led by a 22 year old with Downs syndrome determined to escape from the nursing home he's been stuck in since he has no other family - meeting up along the way with a lonely seafood thief and the carer who's meant to bring him back. There's a very sweet nature to this one - while it's a little unlikely in some places, and the ending is, to say the least, abrupt (the climax reaches the right heights, but the following scene-and-a bit leave us a bit "that's it"?) the journey along the way pays off. Including a very strong cast (La Boef proves to be quite a resoanable actor when not having to talk to giant robots exclusively, Zack Gottsagen is a great presence, and such performers as Bruce Dern and John Hawkes are, frankly, slightly overqualified for what the film needs from them but nevertheless give solid background - Dakota Johnston is the one member of the lead trio who feels underwritten). So it's a reasonably enjoyable flick