https://www.thefilmagazine.com/tim-burton-movies-ranked/ SSP
Review in Brief: Fighting with my Family (2019)
I am not a wrestling fan. Childhood friends were and I suppose I must have unconsciously absorbed a few names and special moves, but I still know next-to-nothing about it. And yet I found FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY, this (mostly) true story rather compelling. It’s got all the classic beats of a sports movie (yes, even a training montage) and many of those expected from a British biopic too, but the honest performances, warmth and life lessons carry it through. You can laugh, you can cheer, you can get pretty darn emotional as you follow Paige and her mad family on their quest for success. Florence Pugh is versatile as always, embodying Paige at her best and worst and strong support is on hand from Nick Frost, Vince Vaughn and Jack Lowden. SSP
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Biopic, Comedy, Fighting With My Family, Florence Pugh, Jack Lowden, Nick Frost, Sports Movie, Vince Vaughn
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Review: Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
No HE’S balder!: Chris Morgan Productions/Universal Pictures
I came to the FAST & FURIOUS franchise in time for FAST FIVE, when any pretence about the series being about cars and street racing anymore went up in a bloom of ignited fuel. Since then we’ve had 2 very good and very silly action movies and one less good silly action movie. HOBBS & SHAW is another less good silly action movie, but I can’t say I didn’t get what I came for.
DSS Agent/human tank Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and former baddie mercenary-turned-less-bad mercenary Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) reluctantly team up to secure a deadly engineered virus carried in the blood of Shaw’s estranged sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby). But unstoppable cyborg fanatic Brixton (Idris Elba) is on their tail, an opponent who may be too much of an obstacle even for all three of them, if they ever get along.
Johnson and Statham are a pleasing bickering double-act and both are given memorable reintroductions (Shaw destroys a room full of henchmen with a surprisingly durable champagne bottle and Hobbs does the same to a similar bunch of bad guys with his fists and head). They then trade insults and emasculating put-downs throughout, some of which really push the film’s age classification. David Leitch of DEADPOOL 2 is directing so it isn’t a surprise when the gags fall in the same ballpark (“ball” being the optimum word).
Vanessa Kirby steals the show from the titular heroes without breaking a sweat. As Hattie Shaw she’s easily the most layered character (in that she has some) in the film not to mention proving herself particularly deadly an opponent to anyone standing in her way (the noises some people made in the cinema when you see how much damage she can do just with a fold-up chair…).
There’s no reason for this to be 2 hours+. It’s an A-B chase movie but it chooses to take a really circuitous route to get there. If it had just received a bit of a trim, made more streamlined and pacey it might have been more enjoyable overall. The final act in Hobbs’s homeland of Samoa would have also had much more of an impact if we hadn’t been shown the whole thing in trailers.
The most hilarious thing in the film, intentionally funny or not, is bulletproof super-soldier Idris Elba always putting his motorbike helmet on before a chase scene. I know it would have made the stunt work much simpler to film if you’re not worrying about using doubles, but the amount of times Brixton and his sci-if bike is clearly CGI, you might as well have reinforced his fearless nature.
The CG compositing in general could have used another pass – the stunt work is good, as are individual stunts and effects, but when it goes from one to another it’s jarring on the eyeballs, especially when Idris Elba seems to become a rubbery Mr Fantastic to get his bike around sharp corners. The much-ballyhooed train of off-road vehicles chained to a helicopter going over a cliff must’ve had some practical basis but I really can’t tell where the the effects work takes over from the tactile, so that’s something I suppose.
Hobbs & Shaw is mostly harmless fun that refuses to subscribe to logic or put a check on its stars’ egos or on-screen personas. You probably saw that story the other week about how Johnson and Statham (among other F&F stars who now have producer roles) have an iron grip over how their characters are allowed to appear in this franchise, which makes everything less organic but not any less fun. Just sit back, get comfortable and let the stupid come to you. SSP
Review in Brief: Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
The Manga eyes didn’t bother me, it was the mouth, the split-second between changes in facial expression you pick up from a human performer (Rosa Salazar) motion-capturing an almost-human. It’s completely different from creating a believable ape or orc or Gollum. Lead character aside, not a whole lot in ALITA is memorable. Now I’m not saying every character in a Manga or Anime adaptation needs to be Japanese, but at least some of them should be. It looks expensive, the action is flashy and the world is detailed, but you never feel like you’re really in it. Christoph Waltz has to laboriously explain in his admittedly honeyed voice every new concept and conflict, who is what class and why, but too much is left to be continued in writer-producer James Cameron’s arrogant presumption of guaranteed sequels. What we’re left with is a pretty, empty and unfinished story. SSP
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Alita Battle Angel, Christoph Waltz, James Cameron, Rosa Salazar, Sci-fi
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Review in Brief: Dumbo (2019)
To its credit, this Disney remake has some good gags (a circus strongman making a valiant effort to double as their accountant) and a level of visual sumptuousness impressive even by Tim Burton’s usual standards (the costumes, the reimagining of the pink elephants scene). Vexingly, half the cast seem in disagreement over what kind of movie they’re in and the tone is all over the place. After a reasonable and recognisably DUMBO first half, the big-eyed-big-eared elephant’s journey seems to start all over again without the whole route being mapped out properly. Dumbo himself tugs at the heartstrings, but the humans all struggle to make a connection with generally bland performances across the board. I’d never call Michael Keaton’s turn as a villain bland, but I’d struggle to describe it in human terms either, changing accents, energy and poise from one shot to the next. SSP
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Disney, Dumbo, Family Film, Michael Keaton, Tim Burton
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The Art of the Social Media Thriller; Narcissism, Paranoia and Tools for Good or Ill
Posted in Film, Film Feature, The Film Magazine
Tagged Assassination Nation, Cam, Ingrid Goes West, Searching
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Review: The Lion King (2019)
Nothing to see here, just a bird and a lion being a bird and a lion: Disney
I watched the original LION KING the night before I saw this new version to have a point of comparison. I now realise that was a mistake. The 1994 film is so efficient in its storytelling, so full of animation subtleties and beautiful characterisation in aid of emotional connection. The new CGI version re-tells the same story with characters who can’t emote at all, never mind provide nuanced performances or make you care. At least the music is mostly unspoiled. Mostly.
Simba (JD McCrary) is ready to one day take over his father Mufasa’s (James Earl Jones) kingdom and take his place in the great circle of life, until his jealous uncle Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) instigates a coup and banishes the young lion.
I’m so glad people are realising how ridiculous it is to call this a live-action remake. There isn’t a frame of the real here, just a good-looking and stunningly detailed reality simulation. It’s an impressive technical exercise but should have probably stayed at the proof-of-concept stage, which is what the opening shot-for-shot recreation of “Circle of Life” feels like.
This first scene made it very clear very fast that this wasn’t going to work as an enterprise. The shots might match but there’s a key element missing. In Lion King ’94, Zazu flies ahead of the procession of pride land citizens coming to pay tribute to the new prince, he lands and bows before a regal and stoic lion surveying his kingdom, before Mufasa’s face breaks into a warm beam of recognition at his old friend. In the remake a bird flies above a load of other animals, lands in front of a lion, the lion looks at the bird and the bird looks back.
As the film went on it started to annoy me how little they were prepared to deviate from the original story. Almost beat-for-beat, it’s the same. Even when they do do something new it’s to make what came before less interesting. “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” is the only musical number with any choreography, or any real movement, to be honest. They turn “Be Prepared” into a badly written politician’s speech with a strange cadence. Gone too is the exaggerated scenery and the moody lighting all in the name of realism. The stampede is a boring scene now. How is that possible?
In terms of voice talent, it’s a mixed bag. The highlight is probably John Oliver as a prim and particular Zazu prone to telling comic anecdotes that nobody listens to. Billy Eichner brings nervous energy and decent pipes to Timon, Seth Rogan is funny as always as Pumbaa but should never have a go at singing again. Ejiofor has an interesting new take on Scar but his delivery is too subtle for the medium. James Earl Jones provides the continuity but sounds on autopilot, the lower vocal register he’s reached with age resulting in the odd veer into Vader.
Going for a tone as grandiose and serious as the stoney-faced lions we’re being asked to empathise with might have elicited some kind of response if it was consistent, but then Jon Favreau and co decided to wink at their completely captive audience. The fact that the adult Simba (Donald Glover) has an unexpectedly good singing voice and Rogan aa Pumbaa most definitely does not gets an acknowledgement, and there’s even a spoof of another Disney movie (one to also receive the remake treatment, no less) used as a plot point later on. It all just comes across as a bit try-hard.
While most of the songs you know and love survive intact, you might want to either close your eyes or cover your ears to get any real enjoyment of the new Lion King. The audio-visual dissidence of photo-real animals belting out Broadway musical numbers without Broadway-style expressive performances completely takes you out of the story. Photo-real lions can’t smile or cry. If there’s one thing Disney don’t want their remakes to leave their audience feeling, it’s cold. If there’s one thing they don’t want to leave their audience thinking, it’s “I wish I was watching the original”. SSP
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Billy Eichner, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Disney, Donald Glover, James Earl Jones, JD McCrary, John Oliver, Jon Favreau, Seth Rogen, The Lion King
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Review in Brief: Robin Hood (2018)
If I hear one more new take on a property tell me to forget what I know, I’ll stab myself with a fork. We’re also supposed to “forget history” with the latest take on ROBIN HOOD. Just as well really, because the costumes are less Little John and more Jean-Paul Gaultier. I get the whole robbing by night in order to soak up the adulation of a charitable noble by day, but I’m sure at one point Robin (Taron Egerton) steals from the church only to give back to the church. That’s not redistribution of wealth, that’s borrowing and interest. The action is mostly slickly executed but not enough to distract from the mess that is the rest of the film. The sci-fi costumes, wipe-clean castle sets and the fact that nobody who made this seems to care how fire works shouldn’t bother me this much but the rest is so dull and derivative you have to notice. SSP
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Action, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Robin Hood, Taron Egerton
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Review: Midsommar (2019)
The poster-girl for hayfever sufferers: B-Reel Films/Square Peg
MIDSOMMAR is a trip, and no mistake. Two features in and Ari Aster is already an aesthetically and thematically distinctive auteur, but is still capable of shocking us all.
In an effort to overcome her grief after a family tragedy, Dani (Florence Pugh) travels with her boyfriend and his postgraduate friends to the remote Midsommar solstice festival in Sweden. Despite a warm welcome and a pleasing sense of tradition, something darker is at work behind the festivities.
WICKER MAN comparisons are inevitable, and there is shared DNA, but the Robin Hardy classic looks rather tame by comparison. I was most reminded of Darren Aronofsky’s more out-there films in the way that perception of reality is constantly played with. If you took the bad batch nightmare trip from the finale of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, spliced it with metaphoric murkiness of MOTHER! and adorned the resulting hybrid with garlands of garish flowers, that’s Midsommar.
This is the antithesis in presentation to Aster’s previous effort HEREDITARY (bright, colourful and in the open vs dark, oppressive and claustrophobic) but it’s also a lot more disturbing. I said at the time that Hereditary impressed me as a film but that I didn’t feel it was effective as a horror, but Midsommar works on both accounts. It’s the classic dark fable setup; naive young people being beguiled by a welcoming culture in a seemingly idyllic environment only for a much more sinister truth to be gradually revealed by which point it’s far too late to escape.
Midsommar is a full sensory-enveloping experience. They should really give you a handful of grass to fondle and some suspicious tea to sip at every screening to complete the effect. You’re dazzled and mesmerised by the visuals, from the vivid colours, the intricately detailed production design and the grotesque individual images burned directly onto your brain. The wall of sound encompassing scored music, foley artistry and the actors’ chilling vocalisations of their distress envelops you, traps you.
Florence Pugh is simply sensational. Aster is unforgiving with the film’s shot construction, more often than not holding tight on her face and putting her through the emotional wringer in a long take. I’d say that Pugh takes Dani to some interesting places, but I’m not entirely convinced she was always in the driver’s seat, that the character and the process didn’t take over in some primal fashion. Dani’s fellow solstice tourists (Jack Raynor and Will Poulter stand out) are various shades of unlikeable and may well face symbolically appropriate fates in the end. Dani and Christian’s relationship is an interesting and contradictory one, though Dani edges it in the audience sympathy stakes by virtue of not being a manipulative bastard.
From the start you’re trying to work out what the town’s big deal is, what they have in store for their unsuspecting visitors. Even as everyone’s role in the grand plan becomes clear (and Aster isn’t subtle in much that he shows you) you can’t predict how far things will go.
It seems odd to have such a dark (thematically) and full-on horror released at the height of summer, but when else would it make sense to see a solstice shocker? The brightness of the sun and the prettiness of the surroundings can be deceptive; you didn’t expect abject terror in such plain sight.
When the film really goes to extremes it might put some off, especially after enduring such a gruelling run-time. Heads splatter, clothes are discarded and trespassers dealt with cruelly. This is in no way a horror that leaves it to your imagination.
Like Hereditary you could look at the film as purely metaphorical, but for me I think we weave in and out of reality based on characters’ emotional unrest and ingestion of psychoactive substances. Dani’s emotional journey, her recovery from grief, is her reality. She has to keep looking inward and look after her own well-being even as paradise is festering around her and people are dying. However you read it, Midsommar is a fascinating and unusual horror that draws you in and doesn’t let go. Maybe Florence Pugh will get some acknowledgement come awards season just as Toni Collette was unjustly snubbed. SSP
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Ari Aster, Darren Aronofsky, Florence Pugh, Hereditary, Jack Reynor, Midsommar, Mother!, Requiem for a Dream, Robin Hardy, The Wickerman, Will Poulter
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