VOD: Extraction 2 (dir: Sam Hargrave, 2023)

"Soldiers! These men are killers!"
"Yeah, so am I."

Picking up directly from the ending of the original Netflix smash, this sequel very quickly resolves the apparent death of the wonderfully-named Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth), introduces the antagonists in uncompromisingly brutal fashion (murdery East European drug-lord brothers) and places a wounded Hemsworth in isolated retirement at a remote Austrian cabin...until Idris Elba turns up with a family-connected mission that brings everything together.  Cue a brief Rocky-style montage of rehabilitation training and we are up-and-running with an impressive extended prison break-out.  This film swaps the sun-baked Eastern climes for more wintry-hued mid-European tones, and it is based around three lengthy set pieces, the best of which is a nerve-shredding and extraordinarily well-staged high-rise rooftop sequence.  The strategy of using lengthy single-take-style action sequences works extremely well, with excellent fight/stunt choreography and delivery and an engaging if exhausting relentlessness.  It is interesting that the finale reduces the scale to make it a more intimate and impactful ultimate confrontation, but it is nevertheless effective.  Together with Sam Hargrave (director) and Joe Russo (writer) returning from duties on the first Extraction, Hemsworth gives his all and really sells the character and the full-on physical action in a very entertaining performance, and Tornike Gogrichiani delivers well as his dead-eyed and merciless nemesis.  Alongside the film's well-handled theme of family in different variations, essentially Extraction 2 is a very well-made pursuit/revenge action potboiler that delivers effortlessly.

VOD: A Beautiful Life (dir: Mehdi Avaz, 2023)

"It doesn't matter who you are, what's important is who you can be."

Danish singing star Christopher takes centre stage here as an ordinary working trawlerman Elliot, who gets 'discovered' when supporting a mate at a birthday party gig and tries his luck with the music industry.  Teamed up with an initially spiky young female producer, their relationship develops, he becomes an overnight internet hit, his old less-talented friend resurfaces... yes, it seems there are no real surprises in the narrative trajectory that unfolds here until two huge personal twists come into play right before the biggest break of his career so far.  With Christopher proving to be a very pleasant and likeable performer both as actor and singer, picturesque settings and a gentle laid-back vibe, A Beautiful Life is hardly earth-shattering but it is a very easy and pleasant film to watch.
 

VOD: The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent (dir: Tom Gormican, 2022)

"Have you any idea how all of this sounds?  'Cause I mean, it's not...it's not good."

Nicholas Cage plays a hyper/self-aware version of himself as a deluded and washed-up actor, failing as a husband and father, who finds himself whisked off to Spain to meet with a wealthy fan/patron Javi who has written a screenplay for him, but who turns out to be hunted by the CIA as a crime boss and thus Cage gets recruited to spy on him and finds himself in a real-life action-movie scenario.  If you are a fan of Nicholas Cage's particular unwieldy and enthusiastic style you might enjoy this film, Pedro Pascal seems a little lost as Javi, but the unexpected presence of Sharon Horgan as Cage's acerbic ex-wife adds a little bite.  For the most part, however, the film frequently strains to be funny and comes across as smug rather than entertaining and laboured rather than smartly knowing, making it feel like a very long and testing film to sit through.
 

VOD: A Man Called Otto (dir: Marc Forster, 2023)

"I was, uh, parallel parking."
"Parallel to what?"

This utterly charming film stars Tom Hanks as a curmudgeonly widower who is a stickler for rules and suffering the trials of modern-day life, unwanted retirement and his neighbours, and just as he is about to end it all he is distracted by the arrival of a new energetic family, which starts off his journey to redemption.  The film is lovingly-crafted in every aspect and it conveys Otto's feelings of loss, frustration and loneliness beautifully, but there are also plenty of chuckles to be had along the way from Otto's utter disdain at everyone.  This is perfect casting for Tom Hanks who delivers terrific work, and Mariana Trevino is a delight as his upbeat and more chaotic new neighbour.  This feels like a very complete, emotional and satisfying film to watch with its perfect marriage of writing, screencraft and performance
 

VOD: Bones And All (dir: Luca Guadagnino, 2022)

"I don't kill people.  At least, I try not to."

In this unusual love story, a new-to-town high-schooler sneaking out to a slumber party might not seem the most interesting of openings, but what happens there certainly changes the tone suddenly and unexpectedly, setting in motion a road trip across America to find her birth mother, meeting like-minded souls along the way and indulging in her particular urges.  Taylor Russell gives a nicely-controlled performance as the central character Maren, and there is strong character work from Mark Rylance.  The occasional very strong violence is sudden and brutal but necessary.  The film is hypnotically languorous, reinforced by another excellent dreamlike Reznor/Ross score and soundscape.  Not a lot happens rather slowly overall, but Guadagnino's eye for light and landscapes makes the film look stylish.  With its sad but fitting end to the doomed relationship, this is a hauntingly beautiful film that lingers rather than ending with a bang.     
 

VOD: Guy Ritchie's The Covenant (dir: Guy Ritchie, 2023)

"You're here to translate."
"Actually, I'm here to interpret."

Dealing with the American military presence in Afghanistan, The Covenant charts the relationship between a U.S. officer (Jake Gyllenhall) and an Afghan interpreter (Dar Salim), working in a specialist arms/explosives unit hunting down I.E.D. factories.  The pairing of two cynical/world-weary opposites works well and is played deftly by both actors as their bond is forged under the hardest of circumstances, with Gyllenhaal's usual clarity and precision of performance being a major strength in a film that is achingly simplistic but tightly focussed, with Ritchie using location shooting very well and creating an unusually grounded and sombre feel that is very effective.  The film also manages to humanise its rather basic characters quite well, making this one of Guy Ritchie's more compelling and watchable films.
 

VOD: Creed III (dir: Michael B. Jordan, 2023)

"It's an adjustment...for both of us."

An opening flashback of two decades to a young Adonis and his older best friend Damian sets the scene for their modern-day reunion after Dame spends years in jail and comes looking for an improbable shot at the world heavyweight title.  This trilogy-closer is perhaps inevitably a more muted affair than the preceding movies as the central characters deal with their post-career/domestic phases and lives, which sit somewhat awkwardly with this very unlikely underdog/comeback story layered on top.  Slow pacing, weary soapy melodrama scenes and an unconvincing story hold back this entry, and whilst the main players - Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Phylicia Rashad and especially Michael B. Jordan - are all quality performers, this reasonable but underpowered third entry never really flies like the best moments in the first two Creed films.
 

VOD: Tin & Tina (dir: Rubin Stein, 2023)

"That's not jam..."

Opening with a grand Spanish wedding set in 1981, happiness soon turns to heartbreak for the newlyweds in this Spanish chiller.  Finding themselves unable to have children of their own, they adopt a pair of smiling blond-haired youngsters (think Children Of The Damned meets The Omen) from a nearby convent orphanage, whose rather unconventional way of communicating with God, obsession with religion and disturbingly detached bad behaviour has an increasingly unsettling effect.  Indeed, religion weighs heavily over the story, as the children believe that their increasingly extreme acts are justified by literal reading of The Bible allied with concepts of sin and the soul.  Some questionable parenting aside, this is an adequate creepy thriller with interesting off-kilter performances and that manages a couple of 'look away' moments in the second half, all building to a reasonably hysterical thunderstorm-at-night set finale.

 

VOD: The Whale (dir: Darren Aronofsky, 2022)

"Do you ever get the feeling that people are incapable of not caring?"

Brendan Fraser plays Charlie, a morbidly obese online tutor, in Aronofsky's first major film since the uncompromising Mother! which proves to be just as emotionally brutal but in a very different way.  Brendan Fraser's remarkable physical on-screen transformation enables him to fully inhabit a character of gently despairing resignation with utter credibility and sensitivity as he spirals towards his impending death.  Fraser's performance is all the more impressive for him being the relentless focus of the film, trapped within his apartment. giving the intimate feel of theatre that is amplified by the use of the old-school film ratio.  Also of note are a wonderfully-judged performances from Hong Chau as Charlie's dedicated friend/nurse and Sadie Sink as his challenging teenage daughter.  The Whale is a sombre, quiet and heartbreaking film that is exquisitely written and directed and impeccably performed.
 

VOD: In The Earth (dir: Ben Wheatley, 2021)

"I wouldn't try to make any logical sense of it."

 Ben Wheatley's pandemic-created movie is a slow-burn creepy eco-thriller, starring Joel Fry as a soil scientist going deep into the woods with a local guide (Ellora Torchia) to investigate a missing colleague and linked to researching nature's 'neural network' and ancient folklore.  As they encounter a strange man (Reece Shearsmith) living in isolation, reality and metaphor blur, the situation rapidly becomes very unstable and desperate for the pair as the different narrative elements collide.  Perhaps closest to his A Field In England in style at times, Wheatley does a good job of presenting nature as a quietly creeping invasive force, but the unfolding mysteries are quite thinly drawn and the performances are adequate at best, and the link between the pandemic backdrop in the movie and the environmental aspect is awkward, yet the hallucinatory attempts to ambitiously establish communication between man and nature is constructed effectively, even if it all leaves the viewer somewhat flummoxed by the end of it all.

VOD: Babylon (dir: Damien Chazelle, 2023)

"What exactly is going on here?"

Sprawling and indulgent, Babylon sets out to capture the excesses and craziness of early Hollywood with gleeful abandon - and that's just the thirty-minutes-long pre-title sequence!  Set in the 1920s and moving into the 30s, Babylon mostly follows the stories of two wannabees working their way up the Hollywood system (expertly played by Margot Robbie and Diego Calva) and an older established star (a note-perfect Brad Pitt).  The three lengthy acts (the Silent Era, the arrival of sound, the fall) chart the legends and changes in the early film industry effectively, yet in spite of a running time of over three hours the film says nothing new and does it with a lack of subtlety.  The film is nevertheless lavishly mounted and energetic, and it is to the great credit of the three lead performers that their stories engage over the length of the film.
 

VOD: Tar (dir: Todd Field, 2023)

"Ha, you mean she has a conscience."
"Maybe..."

Cate Blanchett invests heavily in bringing to life the driven, absolute and compellingly extreme central character of Lydia Tar, a brilliant musician/conductor/academic, seen at the top of her profession as she prepares to tackle a live recoding of Mahler's 5th Symphony.  Scenes are mesmerisingly lengthy, with Blanchett commanding every one with her extraordinary clarity and precision, showing both Tar's unwavering bravado and also the subtle manipulative differences she employs when engaging with the different people and facets of her life.  The tension between creativity and judgement is interesting from the outset, and as Tar's increasingly toxic relationships and manipulations start to infringe on her status and public profile and her life and career start to unravel, her loss of control is both fascinating and sad to watch.  The character may be impenetrably unlikeable, but Blanchett's perrfomance is quite extraordinary to watch. 
 

VOD: Hard Feelings (a.k.a. Hammerharte Jungs) (dir: Granz Henman, 2023)

REVIEW No. 1,450!

"Stop behaving like nine-year-olds!"

This low-powered German Netflix teen coming-of-age comedy centres on the hapless butt-of-his-peers'-jokes loser Charly and his long-standing best friend Paula who - following a lightning strike - find they have the ability to have conversations with their sex-craving genitals!  It seems to aim for somewhere between The Inbetweeners and American Pie but makes little impact through generally flat performances and writing, lacking both a breezy confidence and an ability to nail the more sensitive dramatic moments with any real success.  Double standards, social media and the rumour mill are all touched on superficially as the film grinds along unconvincingly to its inevitable conclusion with little to entertain along the way.
 

VOD: Swallowed (dir: Carter Smith, 2023)

"It's definitely got a charm of its own."
That's for sure."

Belonging to that rare sub-genre of the indie gay-themed horror-thriller, Swallowed starts off with a pair of best friends partying as one is about to leave for a career in the adult industry and the other on a cross-border drugs run (hence the title) to make some quick cash for his friend's new life.  As a couple of unfortunate events do not go the guys' way, they find out the hard way that these were not usual drugs, and to say that unfolding events take them (and the viewer) into unexpected situations would be an understatement, and it certainly brings a new take on the cabin-in-the-woods trope.  Not so much body-horror as body-trauma, the more brutal aspects of the film sit alongside some appropriate themes of unrequited love and homophobia, led by two committed performances by Cooper Koch and Jese Colon.  Although the characters are drawn quite thinly, the film generates an almost hypnotic feel of isolation and helplessness which is fairly interesting and quite stylishly presented.
 

VOD: The Mother (dir: Niki Caro, 2023)

"You sold your soul to the devil - how come you still look so good?"

A heavily-pregnant drugs informant Jennifer Lopez finds herself under attack at a supposed FBI safe house at the lively start of the movie, and twelve years later she is forced out of hiding to protect the daughter she was forced to give up.  As the action moves to Cuba in the search for the kidnapped daughter, the film basically turns into a female-led Taken, and on return to home turf - here the forbidding but picturesque Alaskan wilderness - it focuses more on the fractured mother-daughter relationship as the drugs lord homes in on his prey.  Grindingly generic and saddled with uninspired dialogue plus oddly-used and inconsistent music, the scant action/chase sequences are occasionally snappily edited, but in general The Mother is a rather simplistic, downbeat and dour action-thriller led by a weary-sounding Lopez that struggles to maintain interest beyond the first half-hour. 
 

VOD: Incantation (dir: Kevin Ko, 2022)

"Let's do an experiment."

This Taiwanese Netflix horror manages to unsettle the viewer from the opening scenes, as we follow a video diary of a young mother regaining custody of her daughter following a tragic accident and her belief that she is cursed by a deity about whom 'the more you understand, the more misfortune befalls you'.  Playing very much like Paranormal Activity meets The Blair Witch Project but far more interesting and content-packed than either, with hefty doses of Asian horror tropes along the way.  Unlike its American counterparts, Incantation has a fairly relentless barrage of bizarre, disturbing and downright spooky occurrences and images that run alongside flashbacks to her younger past as a paranormal investigator that flesh out the story effectively to show the spirit-bothering breaking of a taboo.  The film becomes increasingly hallucinatory and unpleasant, and it is overall a strong and interesting take on the sub-genre.