Alien: Covenant

The Alien Saga's now up to it's eighth entry, and like most sagas that long, there's a fair bit of uneven-ness. This one's a sequel to "Prometheus", a prequel to the first 4 and a film that completely ignores the existence of the two "Alien Vs Predator" films, giving us something that, at least at the beginning, feels a bit like a variation on the first film. A small crew is awoken in the middle of deep space and discover a distress signal that entices them onto a distant planet - where nasty things lurk. Body count ensues.

It does pick two of the interesting bits from "Prometheus" up - Michael Fassbinder, and the deeper philosophical question of whether a creative god is required to care about the fate of his creations at all - and applies it in a far more back-to-basics manner, without the crew acting stupid or excessive weird old-man makeup. The drawback of this, of course, is that comparisons to the first "Alien" are not only inevitable but also something where the new film can't quite measure up - in particular, the characters, Fassbinder aside, feel far more noticeably thin - nothing feels particularly lived-in. Katherine Waterston gives it a good shot as the default heroine, and Danny McBride scores pretty well playing mostly a straight role as a pilot, but the rest of the cast barely make it to two dimensions, meaning that, more than usual, this is a bit of a meat-on-the-hoof kinda film where characters just exist to be slaughtered. Oh, some of the slaughter is imaginatively done, but still, it's people we don't much care about failing to survive. There are few plot twists that aren't telegraphed well in advance.

But this is somewhat comfortable watching anyway - if it's not innovating, it's reassuring to be mostly in the hands of a film-maker who can bring good visuals like Ridley Scott (even if he's never been consistently good at picking a script). It's weird to call a film this graphically gory "comfortably familiar" but that's kinda what it is.

Whiteley

Brett Whiteley is, of course, a very significant Australian artist, and absolutely entitled to have a documentary made about his work. But the fundamental choice to have the majority of it done in his own words is a bit awkward, as ... well, he's a painter, not a talker, and a lot of the words (using a mix of archival interviews and recreated speakers) tends towards being utter pretentious bilge. It does tend to put the kybosh on really enjoying this when the subject of the documentary won't stop talking bollocks at you.

It's not an utter write-off, though. His ex-wife and muse, Wendy, is represented through new interviews and old footage and has a lot to say that is pretty interesting about both being tied up with a troubled man and about her own explorations through the 60s and 70s. And the artwork is fascinating in its own right, dense and intense and as complex as ever. But this is a case of a doco that is never quite as fascinating as its subject is.

Shock Wave

It's been a while since I've seen an old-fashioned Hong Kong action film and this most definitely is one of those. Andy Lau's been a Hong Kong star for the better part of three decades now and as a slightly grizzled Hong Kong bomb-disposal expert, he saddles up for another battle with a mad bomber (who goes by the nickname of "Blast" because this is Hong Kong and who needs subtlety?). Blast has isolated himself and his team of criminals in the Kowloon-Hong Kong Harbour tunnel, and is refusing to release around 500 hostages unless he gets a substantial payday and a chance to revenge himself on Lau (who previously betrayed Blast and imprisoned his brother).

There's a reasonable amount of tension in here, along with a bunch of traditional Hong Kong elements - a completely useless girlfriend subplot plus a bit of corruption on the side. This isn't exactly reinventing the form of Hong Kong cinema, but it's pleasant comfort food.

Free Fire

This is an interesting experiment, albiet one that doesn't quite make the grade. It's an attempt to make, basically, a feature-long gunfight (barring 10 minutes of exposition at the top of the film). It's the 1970s and a bunch of misfits from Ireland are meeting another bunch of misfits from America (plus one South African) to purchase a large number of guns. But when distrust starts between them, the shootout kicks off.

This doesn't quite sustain - while the idea has merit, in the end too many of the characters are just that little bit too thin. There's a good collection of performers here (Brie Larson, Noah Taylor, Cillian Murphy, plus new to me performers like Sam Riley and Jack Reynor) but I don't feel like this offers enough twists and turns in the shootout to make this anything more than a drawn out experiment - director Ben Wheatley has a reputation for interesting indie material, but this isn't fully fleshed out and ends up feeling like thin gruel. THere's almost enough here but the screenplay needs just that couple of extra twists to bring it all home.

Their Finest

This is a case of the "nice enough" movie - it's got a pleasant subject, it doesn't frighten the horses, it's a film you can take your mum to, but at the same time, it isn't really a particuarly filling meal. In this case, it's a look at the World War 2 propaganda films, with a fictionalised wraparound about a young writer (Gemma Artherton) and her involvement from writing additional dialogue for shorts (including varying the dialogue where the lips are offscreen so that the same footage can be re-used for multiple purposes), moving onto a fullblown propaganda feature about Dunkirk. Also intertwined are the stories of a young male writer (Sam Claflin) who she gets involved with, and an older actor (Bill Nighy) not quite prepared to admit that leading roles are behind him.

It isn't quite enough, though. Claflin never quite makes his character particularly appealing, meaning that the romance is stillborn, and while Nighy steals scenes left and right, it's really a pretty mild experience. The occasional grand claims about morale don't quite compensate for the fact that, ultimately, this is a film about making a mediocre film, and is itself somewhat mediocre. Atherton's really more a pinball to bounce between men than a fully fleshed out character (she's being bullied by Claflin, Nighy or Jack Houston as her sometimes lover throughout), meaning this really doesn't do it for me very much. It's inoffensive enough to send your mum but not enough to come with her.

Get Out

This has got a lot of hype as the big social-issues horror movie of the year. Which possibly reflects why this didn't quite grab me as much as it has other people - I'm not necessarily backlashing, but it may be a combination of over-exposure to the trailer and a lot of enthusiasm out there (plus never underestimate the power of seeing a horror movie in a full theatre rather than an almost-empty one), but this didn't quite grab me the way it seems to have grabbed a lot of people.

The basic setup is sound - young black man goes to meet his white girlfriend's parents in their cut-off-from-the-outside-world country home, only to become increasingly disturbed by their attentions and their strange treatment of their two black employees. As the weekend goes on, will he be able to escape before it's too late?

I am, of course, a white guy, so it's very possible I'm not getting the subtlety of how this film captures the icky nature of cross-racial interaction, but for me this felt a little flat and obvious - and the late-film reveal as to what's really going on seemed to muddy the underlying symbolism rather than improve it (no, it's not quite what it seems in the trailers, but this is a case where going with what was in the trailers may have been the better option). Performances are mostly pretty solid - Daniel Kaluuya is a sympethitic hero, Bradley Whitford has moved his old yuppie skeeviness into a more academic-style skeeviness, Catherine Keener uses her calm no-bullshit persona and weaponises it, and Stephen Root has a crucial role to play that's both intriguing and ultimately part of why I'm not entirely convinced the film utterly works. But this didn't quite click with me - it's interesting but not best-of-the-year material for me.