FILM: The Girl With All The Gifts (dir: Colm McCarthy, 2016)

"Was that cathartic?"

No question: The Girl With All The Gifts is a terrific British film.  Every aspect of the film is imbued with intelligence and thought, maintaining the ability to please, to surprise and to engage from start to finish.  It is an intriguing mix of old-school John Wyndham-style British disaster with modern touchstones such as 28 Days Later in evidence, but this take on the popular zombie genre is sufficiently different to intrigue.  Gemma Arterton, Glenn Close and Paddy Considine make for a powerhouse trio of very watchable leads, and young Sennia Nanua is quite stunning in the central eponymous girl role.  This is a terrific transition from TV to big screen for director Colm McCarthy, and the sonically-exaggerated soundscape by Cristobal Tapia de Veer complements the story superbly (think of his wonderful TV work on Utopia and Humans but amplified).  A couple of minor narrative wobbles in the second half aside, this is a truly impressive and extremely well-made film.

FILM: Bridget Jones's Baby (dir: Sharon Maguire, 2016)

"There was life in the old dog yet!"

Following the underwhelming first sequel, Bridget Jones's Baby is a pleasant surprise.  This is not a lightweight screwball comedy but a very adult rom-com that balances sincere emotional beats with a lot of very successful visual and verbal humour (the revolving door moment towards the end is probably the best visual gag of the year), making Bridget Jones's Baby a hugely entertaining and enjoyable film.  Returning director Maguire invests the whole film with energy and precision, Zellweger gives a truly nuanced and mature performance that is leagues ahead of the broad comedic style seen in the previous films and is a delight to watch, and the two contrasting male leads  deliver dependably (Firth's ability to throw away a line to humorous effect is so good here).  Whilst the film does not stray from middle-class female fantasy, issues such as Bridget's unplanned 'geriatric' pregnancy and the question of paternity, and even the evolving style of media via Bridget's TV-producing job, give the film a greater depth and scope from which the humour and storylining benefit greatly.  A fourth outing would be welcome if it were as strong as this - and the ending does leave one possible way forward - but Bridget Jones's Baby would serve as an excellent and fitting trilogy-closer that is consistently funny and engaging.

FILM: Blair Witch 4DX (dir: Adam Wingard, 2016)

"This looks familiar."

This under-the-radar sequel to the 1999 phenomenon ignores the hopeless Book Of Shadows and follows the more traditional sequel route with the brother of the original's ill-fated Heather going back to Burkittsville years after the original events following a YouTube video lead.  Modern-day tech is used effectively, such as drones, GPS and earcams, but what we have here is effectively a re-run of the first film, as the scenario gives virtually no scope for anything new.  This film notably lacks the journey and discovery aspects of the original movie, and the expanded muddled endgame suggests different possible explanations for the Blair Witch mystery that fail to satisfy.  The lead actors here are more amiable but quite bland, and Adam Wingard's skill as a director can still be seen at times, but Blair Witch stands as his most disappointing film so far.  If watching the 4DX version, the experience is applied erratically and mostly to emphasise the jump scares.  The Blair Witch Project was an indie breakout through the massive hype and its groundbreaking internet campaign as well as its then-relatively-new found footage technique but - apart from the last couple of minutes - was not remotely scary; Blair Witch has nothing to set the pulse racing at all.

FILM: Don't Breathe (dir: Fede Alvarez, 2016)

HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY TO MY BLOG!

"NO!  NO!  NO!"

Don't Breathe is a notable step up for director Alvarez, building on his work in Evil Dead to create genuine sustained tension in this tightly-plotted and highly effective thriller.  After the opening few minutes of set-up, it was noticeable in the packed screening that a largely teenage/young adult audience was stopped in its tracks with barely a rustled popcorn bag for the ensuing ninety minutes.  Not only does the film deliver on its ludicrously simple high concept - three teens burgle a blind man for his money with unexpected results - but in the later stages of the film a couple of unpredictably unpleasant developments ramp up the narrative.  Of a uniformly strong cast, Jane Levy and Dylan Minnette give wonderfully powerful performances that help to make this well-made thriller not only gripping but extremely watchable.

FILM: Kubo And The Two Strings 3D (dir: Travis Knight, 2016)

REVIEW No. 700!

"If you're Monkey and I'm Beetle, why isn't he called Boy?"

Kubo offers a truly imaginative, absorbing and emotionally sincere journey for the viewer, as Kubo's quest to find three mystical items takes in traditional Asian mythic touchstones, an exploration of the power of storytelling and - at its heart - the very human themes of loss, family and memory.  Laika's animation style is beautiful with some wildly creative ideas realised very effectively, the voice cast is often powerfully understated, and the finale packs a real emotional punch.  Although it has some 'action' sequences, the film adopts a quite steady pace that will not play well with the more hyper delivery of Pixar/Disney products, but Kubo is more about genuine feeling and atmosphere, which ultimately make it a very enjoyable and rewarding film that is clearly made with love for the style and animation on show here.

FILM: Sausage Party (dirs: Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, 2016)

"Are you some kind of...magical sausage?"

The central idea is a killer and the terrific trailer got everyone hooked (and with high expectations), and to a fair extent the full-length film delivers on that trailer's promise.  Structurally seeming to model itself on the much smarter and funnier South Park movie, it is great fun to see a sweary and no-holds-barred adult animated film with a wonderful starry voice cast in full swing, and when it is funny it is very (and jaw-droppingly) funny indeed.  Perhaps inevitably the mood crashes when exposition and plot sequences intrude, the almost obligatory pot-smoking scenes are only funny to very immature teenage boys (will Rogen and co. ever realise that?) and there are times when the food items' journey across the supermarket is nowhere near as interesting as their interaction with the human/outside world.  Nevertheless, all is redeemed with a pacy and rip-roaring finale that clearly demonstrates the wit and creativity that the movie at times misses.

VOD: Intruders (dir: Adam Schindler, 2016)

"Do you know how this has to end?"

With a marketing department that clearly liked the poster for The Cabin In The Woods, Intruders seems at first like a fairly standard home invasion movie, as grieving agoraphobic Anna falls prey to a targeted house-breaking.  As the movie develops, however, it goes off in some very strange and unexpected directions (not all convincing, it has to be said) with a couple of interesting rug-pulls, but a very invested cast and effective direction mean that Intruders maintains enough interest to merit viewing to the end.

VOD: The Witch (dir: Robert Eggers, 2016)

"WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THEE?"

This festival favourite is a bleak and bold tale that is very impressive, as a strongly Christian family take to a life in the woods in 1630s New England and face deep tests of faith, belief and relationships.  The fact that the actors and crew immersed themselves in the isolated and authentic setting pays huge dividends in the look, atmosphere and performances throughout.  It is a steady, controlled and carefully-constructed film that makes every word and nuance of performance count, with careful composition that is often impressive, and thus making the more explosive and shocking moments have even greater impact.  This is a film that rewards patience and certainly takes the viewer on an unusual and worthwhile journey.

VOD: High-Rise (dir: Ben Wheatley, 2016)

"You haven't changed."
"I'm sorry -  I don't think I can."

The seemingly unfilmable novel finally gets to the movie treatment after all these years, and it is a credit to all concerned that this is a generally successful (and surprisingly faithful) adaptation of one of J.G. Ballard's strongest works.  One of the film's pleasures is that it simultaneously feels very much much J.G. Ballard and also recognisable as a Ben Wheatley film, and the collision of the two on screen together with the original 1970s setting makes for a very heady viewing mix.  Wheatley's control of space and body abstraction through framing ties in with Amy Jump's precise script - based largely on Ballard's dialogue - thus echoing some of Ballard's key ideas effectively.  Hiddleston is well cast as his style suits the character, with Jeremy Irons, Luke Evans and in particular Sienna Miller all inhabiting this micro-society strongly.  Like the novel, the anticipation and growing social divide in the first half is more interesting and perhaps better realised than the social disintegration of the second half, and High-Rise is a film to admire rather than to love, but it is a bold and clever transfer from page to screen.

FILM: Bad Moms (dirs: Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, 2016)

"Jesus!  You look like a bag of d**ks!"

Bad Moms delivers pretty much what was presented in the trailer: a formulaic, predictably 'dangerous and outrageous' contemporary comedy which patronises and panders to its main target female audience, but with enough energy and decent lines to make it watchable.  However, whilst stock female movie characters are wheeled out (Hopeless Mum, Slutty Mum, Stressed Mum, Iron Mum, etc.) and men are predictably either hopeless or lust objects, it is to the lead actresses' considerable credit that in the later stages of the movie in particular they are able to find some beating heart at the core of these stereotypes through their strong performances, from reliably engaging performers such as Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell to the precision of the wonderful Christina Applegate and a delightfully abandoned comic performance by Kathryn Hahn.   As the final act surrenders completely to fantasy outcomes, the only truly positive impressions of motherhood are left by the delightful interview clips of the female stars with their real mothers that play over the start of the end credits.

FILM: The Purge - Election Year (dir: James DeMonaco, 2016)

"Wait here."

From one house to the streets to the wider political arena, The Purge series has managed to balance ideas and violent entertainment effectively through its evolution across the trilogy.   Here, in the build-up to an American election that pitches the staunch Purgers (now revealed to be led by a poor-crushing political elite) against Elizabeth Mitchell as Purge-survivor opposition candidate, and whilst politically this film is a very blunt instrument, it builds in differing points of view and plays its effects as if for real, from political machinations down to the impact of shoplifting a candy bar in this fictitious set-up.  Early on, Election Year threatens alarmingly to turn into London Has Fallen, but thankfully regains a bit of unpredictability (admittedly alongside a ton of coincidences) and remains interesting through a superb mixed race/gender cast that really invests in the whole idea, and there is much enjoyment to be gained from watching Frank Grillo totally own the role he was seemingly born to play. This film could serve as a more than satisfactory trilogy-closer to an enjoyable franchise, but if it does continue, it will be interesting to see where it heads next time.