FILM: Barbie (dir: Greta Gerwig, 2023)

"It is literally impossible to be a woman!"

The 2023 Summer holiday season starts with a bang - the Barbie movie delivers.  The movie is inevitably silly and frothy (and knows it), but within the daftness it also delivers enormous amounts of heart.  It is hugely affectionate towards its subject and clearly made with love; the design teams have obviously had a ball and it shows.  As well as lots of fun, the film also delivers some punchy jibes at corporate greed and the patriarchy.  Not only do the verbal and visual jokes mostly land and are very funny, but the longer set pieces also work well, such as an epic beach fight and the Kens' power-ballad/boyband-inflected song-and-dance number.  None of this would work without the extraordinary presence of the utterly invested and magnetic Margot Robbie, backed up by the surprisingly hilarious comedic talents of Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu.  Ultimately Barbie is a breezy lightweight summer blockbuster, a glorious celebration of women of all types wrapped up in a fun, shiny, neon-pink package.
 

VOD: They Cloned Tyrone (dir: Juel Taylor, 2023)

"You're a real Squidward."
"I'm not a Squidward."

This purposely lo-fi grindhouse-looking Black sci-fi comedy from Netflix nails its retro stylings, right down to the cigarette burns.  Starting off seemingly shakily with deliberately flat scenes of drug-dealer Fontaine's everyday life (John Boyega), the story gets shaken up when he is shot but reappears unharmed the next day, and a series of events sees him him team up with a hooker (Teyonah Parris) and a pimp (Jamie Foxx) to investigate, discover his own corpse in a secret underground lab and uncover a growing secret government conspiracy.  The quality of actors involved means all is not lost, but the pacing is relentlessly slow, the limited material is stretched rather thinly, and often it feels like two films are competing and never quite gel - a low-rent Wayan Brothers-style comedy and a gritty old-fashioned sci-fi conspiracy thriller - making for an uneven and not very satisfying movie..  
 

FILM: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One a.k.a. Mission: Impossible 7 (Dir: Christopher McQuarrie, 2023)

"Ghosts don't have reflections."

The Cruise/McQuarrie partnership continues to be very fruitful in this excellent seventh outing for a series that now spans getting on for three decades.  In spite of numerous production delays owing to the pandemic and the series' evidently fluid and improvisational approach to film-making, Dead Reckoning Part One has a story that more or less makes sense and is consistent throughout the film (even with everybody chasing each other/being chased), the core group of old/new characters are linked effectively to the mythology of the franchise, and the action is simply spectacular, including a bonkers car chase through Rome and a stunning third act train sequence that simply keeps on delivering.  Whilst Cruise's contribution cannot be underestimated both on and off screen, old favourites including Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg have plenty to do, and the female characters are genrally well-rounded and integral to the film, with strong performances from Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and Pom Klementieff.  This is proper grown-up Hollywood blockbuster film-making that is engaging (it certainly does not feel like nearly three hours), emotionally satisfying and spectacular.  Even if the writers' and actors' strikes delay production further, on this evidence Part Two should be well worth the wait.

 

VOD: John Wick Chapter 4 (dir: Chad Stahelski, 2023)

"You ready, John?"
"Yeah."

Neon lights, mirrors and water?  Check.  Impossible caches of weapons?  Check.  Dialogue mostly consisting of pseudo-philosophical one-liners?  Check again.  With The Continental taken out of action, Wick travelling the world to survive and find a way out of the bounty on him, and The Table even more resolute than ever to wipe him out, the well-constructed opening scenes clear the decks and set up the ultimate showdown as Stahelski's Tarantino/Woo fanfic series reaches number four.  Huge spaces and stunning locations (and even a cheeky early nod to Lawrence Of Arabia!) create an epic feel to the action, and the prolonged fight sequences are as skilled and visceral as ever - and it must be said, Reeves is excellent again in the title role, together with the addition of the magnificently cool Donnie Yen as his frenemy.  Apart from the settings (Osaka, Berlin, Paris), Chapter 4 offers little new, but it does what it does very well indeed and delivers terrific action entertainment - the Sacre Coeur 222-steps third-act sequence is an absolute blast - and delivers terrific action entertainment once again.  The film does look and feel like a more considered twilight entry in this strong series, with plenty of talk about 'endings' throughout and a bittersweet ending.  Watch also the post-credits scene.
 

VOD: Bird Box Barcelona (dir: Alex Pastor, 2023)

"I though I was chosen...but I was just broken."

Netflix's largely Spanish-language sequel/expansion of the Sandra Bullock streaming smash is both visually striking and engaging from the outset.  The basic premise of the invading creatures who drive onlookers to suicide remains, now a global problem and Bullock replaced here by a young father,  whose unexpected motives and abilities add an interesting dimension to the story.  After the arresting opening, the film flashes back nine months to the start of the invasion in suitably apocalyptic fashion (and one of the best sequences of the film) and then jumps between the present day (a band of survivors trying to reach mountain safety) and the father's backstory.  Attacks by the creatures and other (cultist) human survivors are swift and brutal, and the moments of jeopardy scattered throughout the film are handled well, alongside developing reasonably effective characters. Bird Box Barcelona is a good and well-made extension of the premise that does more than simply relocate.
 

VOD: 65 (dirs: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, 2023)

"You just have to know how to do it."

The excellent Adam Driver plus dinosaurs - what could possibly go wrong?  The film posits a humanoid civilisation on a distant planet, with Driver the father setting off on a two-year exploration mission to earn money for his sick daughter's treatment.  One meteor shower later, the ship crash lands on a hostile planet which turns out to be Earth, 65 million years ago, and so begins the battle for survival.  The film strives for epic with wide visuals and a bombastic score, but quite simply very little happens over its lean 92 minutes; occasionally, dino-creatures turn up and Driver shoots at them, and that is about it.  As ever, Adam Driver invests in his character earnestly, but the high concept idea that makes up the film's engine actually develops very little.
 

VOD: Robots (dirs: Casper Christensen and Anthony Hines, 2023)

"You're only human."

Shailene Woodley and Jack Whitehall star in this groan-inducing Amazon Original sci-fi comedy.  Set in the near future, in which a stiff President succeeds in building 'the wall' and robots have replaced immigrants in menial jobs, Charles and Elaine are both unlikeable characters - he is a serial womaniser and she is a calculating gold-digger -  who use their illegal robot (nice) doppelgangers to play and manipulate their victims and act as their servants.  After a mix-up of schedules/addresses, the two robot versions end up spending the night together, decide to run away to Mexico where equal rights for robots exists, and take over their human counterparts' lives.  There is some value in watching the human versions expose their fallibilities and the robots striking back, and Woodley and Whitehall do their best, but overall this essentially two-hander (four-hander?) is very low-powered in its writing (a case in which swearing is a lazy substitute for actual humour) and chugs along charmlessly and somewhat pointlessly. 
 

VOD: Run Rabbit Run (dir: Daina Reid, 2023)

"I miss people I've never met all the time."

This intriguing Australian psychological thriller finds an ordinary suburban working single mother dealing with the emotional fallout of a broken marriage, losing her father plus an estranged ill mother, whilst at the same time handling the increasingly strange behaviour of her young daughter that becomes tied in to unfolding secrets from the past.  The eerie soundtrack rumbles ominously throughout and the grey stormy mise-en-scene accentuates the grief and trauma running through the film.  The intimate and enclosed feeling generated from the start (reminiscent of The Babadook) tightens very effectively from the midway mark, with events taking an increasingly disturbing turn and leading to a haunting ending.  With strong performances from Sarah Snook as the mother and young Lily LaTorre as the daughter, Run Rabbit Run is a gritty, emotional and interesting film.

VOD: WHAM! (dir: Chris Smith, 2023)

"How can these two idiots become so bloody massive?"

For a pleasant change, this music documentary film focuses on the lifespan of the huge 80s pop duo WHAM! rather than the cursory glance usually given in the many solo-years George Michael endeavours.  Told in chronological order and using a wonderfully dazzling patchwork of a huge range of archive material, the film is loosely structured around an appropriate scrapbook format, that provides not only interesting material about the band (including early club promo gig footage and the first demo of Careless Whisper) but also creates effective context of the early 80s period.  The film not only conveys the extraordinarily rapid success and evolution of the band and its music very effectively, but it also puts across the deep friendship that existed between the pair.  The coverage of each step of the band's journey is methodical, and the consistent, open and equal use of audio voice-over commentary by Ridgeley and Michael makes it feel more personal than a lot of music documentaries.   In keeping with the unashamedly light upbeat pop product that is its subject, the darker side is touched upon reasonably (Ridgeley's stepping back to allow Michael's songwriting strength and solo career to develop, Michael's closeted sexuality) but in no great depth or much sense of the true pain and conflict that must have existed.  Ending on the triumphant Wembley farewell gig, the brief but stellar pop phenomenon that was WHAM! ends on a bittersweet but vaguely positive note from a gracious Ridgeley and ever-complex Michael looking to the future that was to come, and this film is an effortless watch that is well constructed and tells the story very well.
 

VOD: Mother's Day (dir: Mateusz Rakowicz, 2023)

"One woman did THIS?"

This lively and unglamorous Polish action-thriller opens in the early hours of the morning with a lone woman single-handedly taking down a group of unpleasant young men with only her cans of beer and tidy fighting skills.  She turns out to be a former special forces agent believed dead, and when her teenage son is kidnapped from his now-adopted family in a revenge move, she is quickly in pursuit with utter fearlessness and bone-crunching determination, using whatever comes to hand as weapons - stabbing a guy in the ears with carrots is a new one on me.  Occasionally playing more like a good TV thriller, the film is for the most part snappily directed and it is propelled by a driving dub-inflected score.  Agnieszka Grochowsca  throws herself into the lead role with impressive abandon, and whilst some of the fights come across a little too carefully choreographed, this Mother's Day is a lively enough routine actioner.
 

VOD: Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical a.k.a. Matilda The Musical (dir: Matthew Warchus, 2022)

"...but isn't LEARNING what school's for?"

This is a very successful adaptation of the smash stage musical to the big screen.  Whilst inevitably smoothed out yet still faithful to both Roald Dahl and the stage show, the film opens it up effectively for cinema and the joyous score transfers well.  This is a very British-style musical, using its stylised settings and quirky stylings well, from the gaudy family home to the prison-styled school.  The youth cast is extremely good, Alisha Weir impresses and engages in the title role, Lashana Lynch (as the well-meaning Miss Honey) shows her softer side well, and Emma Thompson just about gets by as a fair incarnation of Ms Trunchbull.  Overall, this is an immensely enjoyable and satisfying adaptation.
 

VOD: Shazam! Fury Of the Gods (dir: David F. Sandberg, 2023)

"Please, stop talking!"

Starting off with the open theft of a mystical staff from a museum by a pair of gods (in the form of Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren), the joyous superpower and friendship discovery journey of the delightful original film is here replaced by rather forced humour and generic scenarios that we have seen in other films (collapsing suspension bridge, large unconvincing CGI dragon attack, etc).  Fury Of The Gods unfortunately also sidelines the fun younger characters for their older and duller superhero counterparts (introduced at the end of the first film), who are adequate but are saddled with a rather dull and laboured script that drags rather than sparkles like the original.  The characters also seem a little off from before - Freddie is oddly hyperactive, Shazam dimly smug - and whilst the film overall is not bad as such, it is simply bland and disappointing as a sequel to an entertaining first film.  Mid- and end-credit scenes set up the next instalment (if the relatively weak box office performance permits), for which sharper writing and a return to the spirit of the original film would be welcome.
 

VOD: Age Of Summer (dir: Bill Kiely, 2022)

"I've stopped covering my tracks years ago.  It's OK to leave footprints, OK?"

Set in a golden blue-sky coastal summer of 1986, young out-of-towner (Minnesota) becomes a trainee lifeguard with his best friend in this wistfully nostalgic indie-styled coming-of-age tale.  The actual narrative elements - trying to fit in, taking next steps, discovering girls, hunting for his stolen bike - are slight but sensitively handled.  Percy Hynes White gives a nicely natural understated performance in the central role.  Neither the characters or story offer any real surprises or insights, but seeing 1970s/80s European arthouse film filtered through an American indie vibe is interesting, and the film's sunny laid-back feel makes it a pleasant if unremarkable watch.