VOD: Spiderhead (dir: Joseph Kosinski, 2022)

"Am I a monster. Jeff?"

The opening sequence and titles set up a potentially quirky and intriguing film with unsettling and subtle clashes of tones, design, colour and sound, which introduce Spiderhead as a hi-tech near-future prison research facility, where programme director (played capably by Chris Hemsworth in creepy charm mode) tests new mind/emotion-controlling drugs on the inmates for a pharmaceutical company.  Miles Teller gives another of his nicely-judged and well-considered performances as the inmate who starts to question the morality and purpose of the experiments, and other supporting performances work well.  Whilst the film looks great (and stylistically feels reminiscent of Kosinski's Oblivion), frustratingly, the film falls far short on the writing, as the central idea is spread very thinly indeed, one clunky generic cliché follows another, and the film lacks weight, as supposedly shocking moments have little impact in a film that plays safe and offers little beyond a basic idea.
 

VOD: The Innocents (a.k.a De Uskyldige) (dir: Eskil Vogt, 2021)

"Should we kill it?"

The Innocents is a truly intriguing Norwegian film that mixes horror and supernatural thriller stylings with an on-trend superhero-origins-inflected story of a quartet of young children on a high-rise estate dealing with emerging special powers over one summer holiday.  With echoes of Josh Trank's Chronicle but with young children at its centre, the film mixes the simplicity of childhood innocence with a much darker nastiness, where shadows and silence can appear threatening and naive acts of cruelty seem ordinary to them.  It is a very slow-burning film that builds on its reveals steadily and carefully, and each of the children recognises and comes to terms with their emerging abilities and start to use them in ways that juxtapose powerful intent and naivete to very good effect.  The second half of the film rapidly turns quite bleak and chilling, aided by strong child performances and interesting direction that make The Innocents a very interesting and provocative film.
 

VOD: My Fake Boyfriend (dir: Rose Troche, 2022)

"Don't f**k with love!"

My Fake Boyfriend is another glossy and totally unrealistic NY rom-com, charting the relationships of two best friends (one straight, one gay) as a too-perfect online boyfriend is created to get one of them out of a toxic relationship, but as he goes viral and the real world and fakery begin to blur, the two friends finally learn the meaning of true love.  The film itself is simple, sweet, undemanding and fluffily easy viewing, Keiynan Lonsdale proves to be a charming protagonist, and the whole things breezes along pleasantly enough without leaving much of an impression.
 

VOD: Fresh (dir: Mimi Cave, 2022)

"Maybe it'll be a surprise..."

In a movie that likes to pull a surprise, the first act forms a full 33-minutes pre-titles sequence that sets up the movie as a good contemporary adult romantic comedy/drama...and then veers off into very dark and unexpected horror territory very quickly.  Sebastian Stan channels the edge-of-insanity control of a Patrick Bateman in another strong performance, Daisy Edgar-Jones is solid in the victim/Final Girl role, as there is a notably good performance by JoJo T. Gibbs as her feisty best friend.   This is an extreme men-using-women-as-commodity metaphor wrapped up in a strangely stylish, sombre and intriguing little movie that plays on understatement in the presentation of its shocking central conceit effectively.

VOD: Fire Island (dir: Andrew Ahn, 2022)

"We are literally trash!"

Disney+ brings this latest spin on Jane Austen's Price And Prejudice reimagined as a contemporary gay rom-com, which works surprisingly well for the most part, as a group of supposedly working-class young friends go on their annual break to Fire Island and become entwined in a culture/class-clash with a bunch of wealthier guys.  The LGBTQ factor gives rise to a number of sharp one-liners, the relationships maintain some recognisable Austen elements, the rom-com situation created feels typically as if it does not exist in anything remotely like the real world, and whilst the comedy takes an increasing backseat as the film progresses, performances are engaging and the film is generally sweet-natured and entertaining enough. 
 

VOD: The Swimmer (dir: Adam Kalderon, 2022)

"I hate water, but I love winning."

This Israeli film about a training camp for potential Olympic swimmers on the surface runs the expected gamut of sport/training movie conventions - from jealousies to faded former stars to slow-motion sequences - and it doe sa good job of conveying the emotional brutality of elite sports, near-psychopathic coaches and the way the athletes are treated as commodities.  What sets the film apart is an unexpected slow-burning attraction between newcomer Erez (a strong and engaging performance by Omer Perelman Striks) and his enigmatic rival team-mate Nevo, played out in a refreshingly open and straightforward manner and accompanied by a terrific bright synth-driven soundtrack by The Penelopes.  The stylised way of presenting the final race feels a little over-the-top, but overall this is a well-made and well-performed movie.
 

VOD: Gold (dir: Anthony Hayes, 2022)

"I got used to being alone a long time ago."
"Yeah, me too..."

In a vaguely-sketched dystopian near-future, Zac Efron plays a grizzled drifter who gets a ride across unforgiving bleak desert terrain from an older guy, they discover a huge nugget of gold in the middle of nowhere but ,with no means to excavate it, Efron is left on guard whilst the driver goes back to get a digger.  The harsh, bleak landscape is shot starkly against a brutal depiction of survival and the unforgiving natural world, allied to a haunting and intriguing score by Antony Partos.  Narrative is stripped to the bone, and the two protagonists are presented as blank canvases, with the viewer left to consider what created the haunted characters on show here and what a powerful motivator greed can be.   As is often the case with these isolated survival stories, ultimately little happens as a two-hander becomes a solo piece as Efron battles to survive the elements and his own deteriorating mental and physical wellbeing, and it is to the actor's credit that he presents a committed, solid and watchable performance.  Be warned: the ending is very grim indeed.
 

VOD: One Night Off (dir: Martin Schreier, 2021)

""What an adventure, right?"

Amazon's first German movie production is a well-meaning but rather tame comedy that follows an immature stay-at-home dad left to look after the baby while his wife is out of town, who then embarks on an ill-advised adventure through city nightlife with his best mate and baby in tow to go to a gig and his despotic sister-in-law in hot pursuit.  It may be a very generic and low-stakes tale, but Emilio Sakraya makes for a genial protagonist as the feckless young father. The whole film is rather insipid and played in the broadest of comedic strokes that is pleasant enough but - apart from the cute baby factor - leaves little impression.

 

VOD: Respect (dir: Liesl Tommy, 2021)

"They wanna hear you sing."

This straightforward but well-mounted biopic charts the story of Aretha Franklin from precociously talented youngster having to grow up way too fast (death of her mother, childhood abuse) through her early recording career struggles and eventual success, whilst addressing her personal highs, lows and demons along the way.  She is painted as the ultimate survivor against toxic patriarchy as she battles to achieve her musical and personal independence, and her role in fighting for women and civil rights is given due significance here.  The film conveys the idea that music (popular and church) filled Aretha's life from the start very well, and it balances her music career and rollercoaster personal life effectively (within the confines of the biopic genre that inevitably provides a populist whistle-stop tour of the decades).  The central performance by Jennifer Hudson is undeniably superb, but there is also some great character work by Forest Whitaker as her controlling father and Marlon Wayans as her volatile manager/husband.  The film packs a lot into its running time, providing an interesting and also musically entertaining peek into the life and career of one of soul music's most significant women.  
 

VOD: The Last House On Cemetery Lane (dir: Andrew Jones, 2015)

"A ouija board?  That would definitely be the last resort."

This microbudget British supernatural thriller finds a horror screenwriter renting a creepy isolated mansion (complete with a blind old lady resident in the attic) in order to kickstart his latest project...and that is about it, as not a lot happens.  Our dull protagonist gets to wander around a lot, flirt with a mysterious local woman, has a couple of random nightmares and turns off a record player that mysteriously starts playing in the middle of the night.  With uninteresting dialogue and a very tentative and uncertain soundtrack, when the actual reveal of what happened in the house occurs, the achingly slow pace neuters it.   Essentially a two-hander for the most part, the film struggles to fill its running time and is another example of a somewhat limited British film being promoted with an American genre-styled title and flashy unrelated artwork.

VOD: Last Night In Soho (dir: Edgar Wright, 2021)

"No-one ever really disappears.  They're always around here, somewhere."

Edgar Wright's love letter to Soho past and present comes wrapped in an engaging psychological thriller.  The film creates an interesting mish-mash of the contemporary and 1960s-retro that juxtaposes styles and music very effectively as past and present increasingly intertwine and collide in the parallel tales of a 60s would-be singer and a modern-day fashion student starting out in London.  The storytelling is mesmerising, with Wright in complete control and the unfolding mystery cleverly revealed.  Accompanied by an excellently-chosen 60s soundtrack, the increasingly hallucinatory narrative is tight and compelling, making full use of the vibrant rabbit-warren neon-soaked streets of a stereotypically rose-tinted view of the area.  Great lead performances by Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy are supported well by Matt Smith and well-deployed 60s icons (Diana Rigg, Terence Stamp, Rita Tushingham).  Last Night In Soho is a great example of cinematic storytelling served up with lush visuals by a director with a genuine love for - and understanding of - cinema.