VOD: Being The Ricardos (dir: Aaron Sorkin, 2022)

"There was Lucy and Desi - so they were either tearing each other's heads off or tearing each other's clothes off."

This Amazon Original is aptly titled, as it shows the partnership of TV sitcom pioneers Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and their tempestuous marriage using the successful frame of a single week that traces the making of one episode of their classic show from table-read to recording, whilst also compressing some of the major issues they faced (racism, sexism, network and tabloid pressure, etc) into that time-frame.  An issue with condensing big events into the short time period means that there is a  near-constant level of high melodrama, enhanced by the vivid flashbacks that trace the story of their relationship from its early days, but it certainly makes for an engaging and watchable movie.  Indeed, the welcome and beautifully-played lower-key moments balance the expected high-speed sharply-honed firecracker-dialogue scenes (Aaron Sorkin wrote as well as directed).  Nicole Kidman is at her best here in an impeccable realisation of Lucille Ball (not a full impersonation, but her use of voice and eyes is uncanny at times), well-matched by Javier Bardem's Latin-machismo energy, and there are many supporting roles to savour, notably J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda as series co-stars William and Vivian.  The film ably  recreates the glitz and glamour of the golden age of TV and Hollywood as well as its harsher realities, but at its heart the film conveys a truly fiery, creative and ultimately destructively passionate relationship very well indeed.
 

VOD: Encanto (dirs: Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith, 2022)

"Work and dedication / Will keep the miracle burning."

Disney whisks us off to a sunny and colourful Colombia for its latest colourful animated musical, in which a family gains enchanted powers, sustained by a magical eternal candle, except for Mirabel, the inevitable bluntly-symbolic poster-girl for everyone being of value and recognising people for who they are.  In many ways, Encanto is old-school classic Disney storytelling, right down to the sentient house and seamlessly constructed narrative control that includes a family mystery that is slowly revealed and drives the disruption to the charmed town's life.  The film is delivered with a vibrant and energetic style throughout, all driven by another winningly lively and infectious Lin-Manuel Miranda score.  The ending may feel a little rushed, but Encanto is a big, warm-hearted and enjoyable blast of Disney magic.
 

VOD: Venom - Let There Be Carnage (dir: Andy Serkis, 2021)

"I need brains!"

Mercifully running at a brisk 98 minutes, this sequel does little to develop from the first financially-successful but moderately-received film.  Once again, the film rides on the efforts of Tom Hardy, whose energetic portrayal of Eddie Brock battling his inner alien-symbiote is always enjoyable to watch, but like in the first film much of the attempted humour fails to land and the narrative is crushingly routine, and with this sequel focused strongly on the Eddie/Venom relationship, other characters and plot elements sometimes struggle to get a look-in.  Andy Serkis clearly tries to inject some visual interest in his direction, including a nicely-mounted hand-animated backstory recap for pantomime antagonist Carnage.  The finale offers a suitably lively CGI-drenched face-off, but it is hard to care about what is going on by that point.  
 

VOD: Synchronic (dirs: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, 2020)

"I think they need help."

Interestingly shot and mesmerically melancholic with its plaintive soundtrack and muted colour palette, Synchronic slowly reveals itself to be an intriguing and captivating watch.  Starting off from a seemingly straightforward heroin-fuelled emergency call-out, the situation develops into something more sinister and outlandish as a pattern of designer drug use and peculiar physical injuries starts to emerge.  Jamie Dornan and Anthony Mackie are cast very well here and are well-suited as the world-weary paramedic team with very different issues.  The film works well on its two narrative strands: the designer drug mystery that veers off into interesting sci-fi territory, and the gradual unravelling of  the two paramedics' lives.  The main themes and plot strands come together most effectively for an emotional resolution, making this low-key and low-budget genre-straddling thriller a very satisfying viewing experience overall. 
 

VOD: French Exit (dir: Azazel Jacobs, 2021)

"I'm more than odd."

In this grown-up tale of autumnal change, q dissolute divorced New York socialite, oblivious to life's realities, finds herself penniless, having to sell everything and taking up a friend's offer of a Paris apartment. With its parade of quirky characters and events, French Exit feels like a slightly less stylised Wes Anderson movie. It plays like an elegant theatrical character study with its fractured mother-son relationship at its core, but set against its artfully-shot Parisian backdrop. Michelle Pfeiffer makes an excellent job of conveying the unpredictablilty of the broke and broken woman, matched by another thoughtful and considered performance by Lucas Hedges as her put-upon son. Interesting more than entertaining, French Exit is well-written, extremely strongly performed and engagingly shot.

VOD: The Power Of the Dog (dir: Jane Campion, 2021)

"Not without my brother."

Jane Campion returns to directing with this exquisite adaptation about two very different but well-to-do ranching brothers in early 20th-Century Montana and the impact on them when one of them marries a widower with a sensitive teenage son.  It is recognisably a Campion film - glacially slow and fearless in its use of beautiful stillness, impeccably composed on screen (with everything centred), the juxtaposition of man and the power of his environment, characters reliant solely on each other for their existence - and both the story and its setting allows the director to play to her strengths beautifully.  As an exploration of character, the screenplay, co-written by the director and the original author, is skilfully and  carefully written to peel back the layers of initially obvious types, and the interplaying power struggles are handled with subtlety and precision.  It is, therefore, a gift to its talented cast, led by an extraordinary laser-sharp performance from Benedict Cumberbatch, with an interesting strong dynamic from real-life couple Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons in their respective roles and a challenging role for Kodi Smit-McPhee as the put-upon young man who slowly manages to make some sense of the world in which he finds himself with devastating consequences.  The film will not suit all viewers - it requires considerable patience - but it is by turns powerful, beautiful and quite stunning in its execution.
 

VOD: No Time To Die (dir: Cary Fukunaga, 2021)

"I have to finish this...for us..."

One of the first blockbuster casualties of the pandemic in April 2020, No Time To Die finally got a cinema release at the end of September 2021, and thankfully it proves to be well worth the wait.  It has much to service: wrapping up the current incarnation's story, callbacks to classic Bond films, catering to modern tastes and giving Daniel Craig's Bond a fitting send -off - and No Time To Die does all of these very effectively, in particularly the way it brings together characters and storylines from Craig's films and creates a satisfying if bittersweet ending to his arc.  As expected from a blockbuster of this scale, it is spectacular and well-written, with a great dry sense of humour and some one-liners that would make even Roger Moore wince.  Cary Fukunaga also shines through with some clear creative and distinctive directing choices. Whilst Rami Malik does not make a particularly strong impression as a Bond villain, there are good scenes for M and Q, and the female characters as usual take a backseat (in spite of input from Phoebe Waller-Bridge), but this is very much the Daniel Craig show and quite rightly so, as he proves to be by far one of the best James Bonds and carries the film very well.  
 

VOD: Army Of Thieves (dir: Matthias Schweighofer, 2021)

"Any questions?"
"Yes, many. Hundreds."

Schweighofer's fun comedy-relief character may have been the breakout star of Zach Snyder's Netflix hit Army Of the Dead, but this hasty prequel that charts his European origins and path to becoming a renowned safecracker that secured him the Las Vegas heist gig is disappointing.  Written by Snyder and directed by the star, the film aims to be a kooky crime caper but feels somewhat forced and the humour often falls flat as the film regularly talks itself to death with repetitive exposition.  The film has its merits - the Europe-hopping locations look pretty, the central conceit of finding and unlocking four legendary safes gives an effective backbone to the story - but the characters are generally underwhelming or unappealing, and even its star becomes irritating in larger doses in this vehicle. 

 

VOD: Ron's Gone Wrong (dirs: Sarah Smith, Jean-Philippe Vine and Octavio E. Rodriguez, 2021)

"He doesn't blog, post or share!"
"Creepy."

This debut film from Locksmith Animation leans heavily on E.T. and Big Hero 6, as motherless and friendless middle-schooler Barney is desperate to get a 'Best Friend Out Of A Box', a robotic social-media-connected companion that everyone else has, but ends up with a damaged B-Bot as a birthday present, which Barney - ironically - has to teach about friendship and fitting into the world.  In spite of some jarringly broad-strokes comedy stereotyping in Barney's East-European grandmother, Ron's Gone Wrong is delightful, random, relentlessly wacky and unpredictable, with a sweet central story, thinly-veiled swipes at tech giants and the role of technology in young people's lives, and a lively, colourful style that engages from start to finish.  

 

VOD: Occupation - Rainfall (dir: Luke Sparke, 2021)

"Sydney was just destroyed."
"Which part?"
"All of it."

This direct follow-up to the hit Australian film Occupation brings back the same director and most of the original cast, taking the story two years on as our embattled heroes continue the fight against the invading aliens who now have the upper hand across the world.  It hits the ground running and never lets up, with its big flashy set-pieces played with a surprisingly grounded take on the hard sci-fi genre.  There is a predictable central mismatched mission-pairing of star Dan Ewing's hardened veteran with a sympathetic alien (think Alien Nation) plus a hissable pantomime bad guy, and the lively battle scenes mean that a lot of the dialogue is yelled, but the whole enterprise is delivered with relentless action and vigour, ambitious effects (but with some oddly obvious greenscreen work) and is an enjoyable slice of sci-fi action entertainment.

 

VOD: Attraction 2 - Invasion (dir: Fedor Bondarchuk. 2020)

"If you're immortal, then why love somebody?"

This glossy and expensive-looking Russian blockbuster sequel offers more of the same, three years on after the original alien skirmish in Moscow.  This time there is an emphasis on AI and technology, as our still-dull heroine resumes her extra-terrestrial love affair and an even bigger threat to mankind turns up.  Everything is given a Matrix-style sheen and once again the visual effects work is generally terrific as the water-based dangers build to a huge-scale finale.  An interesting take here is that as the alien AI can infiltrate all human tech and communications, the military have to rely on traditional analogue means of mounting the fightback.  This sequel tries very hard to deliver on scale and energy but does not quite have the purity and originality of the original film. The English dub is reasonably done.