FILM: Wicked Little Letters (dir: Thea Sharrock, 2024)

"Apologies for the language."

A spate of poison pen letters in the seaside town of Littlehampton in the 1920s that became a story of national interest forms the basis of this interesting British comedy-drama.  Pitching the pious Edith (Olivia Colman) against her livelier neighbour and former friend Rose (Jessie Buckley) - the former accusing the latter of sending the letters - the film is much more than a tale of outrageously sweary letters but about the status, role and position of women both in society and the family at that time, which the film explores to a good degree.  Whilst there are many very funny moments, the more dramatic elements of the film are to the fore and the through story is delivered extremely effectively, even if the writing can occasionally sound a little flat.  Olivia Colman is - as ever - superb in her level of control and depth of response she brings to her character, Jessie Buckley is again great as her feisty  counterpoint, Timothy Spall is strong as Edith's overbearing father and a host of recognisable British character actors (including Joanna Scanlan, Hugh Skinner, Jason Watkins and more) give solid support.  It is a very enjoyable and well-delivered film where all the elements come together well, perhaps gentler and more considered than the marketing's focus on the more salacious aspects suggested.
 

VOD: The Abyss (2023) a.k.a. Avgrunden (dir: Richard Holm, 2023)

"Sucked into a sandpit?  That's a new one!"

This Swedish Netflix drama/disaster movie finds the world's biggest underground mine about to cave in and wreak havoc on the nearby town, which is being relocated.  Playing like a low-key and largely TV-level version of its Hollywood earthquake movie equivalents - complete with partying teenagers in the mountains as the prologue shreddies, plucky middle-aged nearly-divorced female head of  mine security with a rebellious daughter and missing son - the film is generally played earnestly and made solidly.  To its credit, the film actually shows how the characters are affected emotionally to the unfolding events (with some uncompromising moments of injury and death), and the lack of a bombastic Hollywood-style soundtrack is refreshing for the genre.  The contained finale is staged well, and Tuva Novotny is fully invested in the lead role both emotionally and physically.  Avgrunden is relatively small-scale and offers little new for the genre, but it deploys its resources effectively and is well-made overall.

 

VOD: Rye Lane (dir: Raine Allen-Miller, 2023)

"You cool?  'cause if you're gonna freak out, I'm gonna sling a sign on you and call it performance art!"

Two young South-Londoners connect after both go through break-ups and spend a day together in this terrifically charming and hugely enjoyable British indie rom-com.  Mostly a two-hander as Dom and Yas go through the day and interact with a variety of quirky characters from both of their lives, the tiny-slice-of-life film delivers a great balance of chucklesome comedy moments and sincere heartfelt drama with relentless well-written sparky dialogue and an endlessly cool soundtrack, made with lovely attention to detail throughout (keep your eye on what is going on in the background of a lot of scenes).  Both David Jonsson and particularly Vivian Oparah bring real warmth and personality to their lead roles, and it is a joy to go along with their characters for the ride.  Put simply, Rye Lane is sweet, warm-hearted and utterly delightful.  Don't miss the funny outtake at the very end of the credits!

 

VOD: How To Have Sex (dir: Molly Manning Walker, 2023)

"Sounds really romantic."
"No..."

Three British teenage girls go for a wild holiday in Malia and have to contend with issues of consent, peer pressure and gender attitudes in this upfront and provocative drama.  The loose reality/documentary style of the film complements the naturalistic performances of the three lively and engaging leads.  Although it could be argued that most of the film plays through the expected teens-go-wild rites-of-passage holiday abroad tropes with woefully thinly-written males, when young Tara (a wonderfully-pitched performance by Mia McKenna-Bruce) is confronted with the realities of sex in a drink-fuelled full-on party-town environment as a young woman clearly out of her depth, the film's mood changes in the blink of an eye and is well-handled by cast and director alike.  The movie offers a sad and sobering reflection on the loss of innocence and it is a promising debut for its writer/director.

 

VOD: The Worst Person In The World a.k.a. Verdens Verste Menneske (dir: Joachim Trier, 2022)

"Nothing's ever good enough."

In this awards-winner, an unfulfilled woman called Julie, approaching her thirtieth birthday, navigates her academic and emotional life in Oslo in her middle-class white-privilege feminist bubble.  Presented as twelve chapters of varying length over four years, it really feels like the viewer goes on a journey with Julie that is honest and grounded to the character, set against a beautifully-shot Oslo.  Renate Reinsve was a deserving Cannes Best Actress winner, with her clear and unfussy performance ably conveying Julie's ballbreaking disdain and fragile loneliness, like a reined-in Fleabag without the fourth-wall breaking.  The film is essentially about the class 'heart versus head' dilemma and how the different men in her life fulfil different needs, with Reinsve matched by a thoughtful performance by Anders Danielsen Lie as Aksel.  It may be talky and somewhat restrained, but its dissection of adult relationships and reflections on life are raw and fascinating to watch. 

 

VOD: My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (dir: Mia Vardalos, 2023)

"The city of Athens!"
"Do we have time to stop there?"
"No."

The company and studio that brought us the Mamma Mia! films obviously aimed here for another slice of that success with this obvious threequel, aiming for the feel of those movies but without the ABBA songs (instead, soundtracked by Greek pop hits) and inevitably falling short, as the extended Portokalos family travels to Greece for a family reunion to take their late father's journals back to his Greek best friends.  Marginally better than the awful first sequel, the formula is still a string of weak and forced jokes and awash with stereotypical characters, not a lot of consequence happens, a rather quick wedding takes place to justify the title and then it ends.  The sunny scenery is lovely to look at and the multi-generational casting is to be applauded, but this film will have limited appeal beyond fans of the franchise and of its style of unsophisticated and very simple humour.

 

VOD: There's Something In The Barn (dir: Magnus Martens, 2023)

"It's f**king freezing!"

"Hey - don't use the f-word!"

"You're right.  I'm sorry.  It's f**king cold!"

An American family moves to remote rural Norway after inheriting a farmhouse with a view to converting the barn into a B&B, but the resident ancient Barn Elf has other ideas...  This unpretentious mash-up of Christmas, creature-feature and fish-out-of-water movie tropes embraces its inherent silliness and has fun with it.  It balances its comedy and mild-horror elements well, the ultra-snowy scenery is attractive, and there are nice nods to the likes of E.T and Gremlins and the zany horror stylings of Tommy Wirkola.  It ends up with a lively madcap finale in which the family finds itself under siege from a gang of angry elves on Christmas Eve.  The film is slight and occasionally underpowered and slow, but overall it is a fairly entertaining slice of festive nonsense.

 

VOD: The Nun II (dir: Michael Chaves, 2023)

"Sound familiar?"

As Shakespeare once said: "Full of sound and fury/Signifying nothing."  Round Two of Sister Irene versus Valak The Demon Nun starts off with a suitably atmospheric French-set 1956 prologue and the death of a priest in a city church, leading to Sister Irene being asked by The Church to investigate a familiar series of murders/suicides.  The set-ups for the supposed scare scenes are somewhat repetitive, apart from one nicely-staged sequence involving a magazine stand, and the film's rather flat feel makes this sequel a rather uninteresting grind through the genre motions that runs out of steam before the half-way mark, all leading to a rather tiresome runaround-in-the-dark screamfest for the finale.  The story's link to the first film works well, but with an uninteresting protagonist and only brief appearances by the titular antagonist, this sequel has little to offer.

 

VOD: The Exorcist Believer (dir: David Gordon Green, 2023)

"We need to try something else.  Something different.  Something new."

With the most recent (TV) incarnation of the Exorcist franchise yielding mixed results (terrific first season, dire second season), Blumhouse/Universal expensively pinned their hopes on this proposed new trilogy-opener.  The original 1973 film's impact both on its release and in subsequent years is a given, just as its sequels are mostly forgettable (except to some extent Heretic, which was not originally written as an Exorcist movie anyway), so this much-touted revival by Halloween saviour David Gordon Green felt like an event but arrived as something of a rather damp squib.  Here, two barely-teenage girl best friends try to summon a spirit but disappear in the woods, lose three days and reappear with rapidly-developing disturbing behaviour from demonic possession.  Rather than a hoped-for smart, modern but respectful reboot, Believer is for the most part an unexpectedly dreary drama throwback, murkily shot and adding very little to what worked well before.  Callbacks are limited and prove unnecessary apart from marquee value, from the arrival of Ellen Burstyn (Regan's mother from the original) which shows promise but is quickly dispensed with, to the brief use of Tubular Bells which feels perfunctory when motifs derived from it could have been more effective in the absence of any strong new musical themes.  There is good work from Leslie Odom Jr (as the suffering father) and Ann Dowd (as the exorcising stand-in), but overall the writing is underwhelming, and what shocked fifty years ago has less impact in a paler version today.  It may be that Believer was conceived as the first of the trilogy to reacquaint audiences with more familiar territory and that the subsequent films might be more creative, but whether or not we get to see them made remains to be seen.   

 

VOD: Orion And The Dark (dir: Sean Charmatz, 2024)

"The trick is not letting the fear get in the way of living your own life."

Orion is an ordinary kid who is afraid of most things, especially the dark.  Frustrated by Orion's depth of fear, one night the personification of Dark pays Orion a visit, with twenty-fours to convince him (together with other anthropomorphised night-time entities such as Insomnia, Quiet, Unexplained Noises and Sweet Dreams) that night-time is actually all right.  Like a cross between Monsters Inc, Inside Out and Rise Of The Guardians, this straightforward and well-told tale - with adaptation input by Charlie Kaufman - is brought to the screen with a pleasing lightness of touch and many lovely visual ideas.  Jacob Tremblay does very good and engaging voice work in the title role, making this an utterly charming Dreamworks animation with the sweetest of endings.
 

VOD: Scrapper (dir: Charlotte Regan, 2023)

"Who's David Beckham?"

Strong-willed, street-smart and fiercely independent twelve-year-old Georgie lives alone after the death of her mother, evading prying neighbours and social services, until the arrival of her feckless absentee father sees them discovering each other and finding their way into a relationship in this quirky, heartfelt British drama.  With a good mix of social realism and child-like imagination, it is delivered by another honest performance by Harris Dickinson and strong work from young Lola Campbell as Georgie, making this admittedly slight and low-key film feel very sincere and engaging.
 

VOD: The Eight Mountains a.k.a. Le Otto Montagne (dirs: Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, 2022)

"I guess this is what happens to the one who leaves."

In this Cannes Jury Prize winner, two twelve-year-old boys from different backgrounds (Bruno is local, Pietro from the city) become childhood best friends at a remote Italian mountain village where Pietro's family spend their summers.  Estranged as teenagers, Pietro returns fifteen years later following the death of his father, when the pair pick up their friendship and build a cabin on the mountain.  Taking pastoral idyll to the extreme, every frame in the mountains is simply beautiful to look at, presented in classic Academy ratio.  It is a simple and universal tale of friendship, loss, regret and generations, but as powerful and elemental as the forces of nature that are intrinsic to the lives of the characters, with overarching themes of change and permanence handled contemplatively. Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi are sublime as the two adult friends destined for different paths, and even though the ending is perhaps inevitable it is still utterly heartbreaking, rounding off  this beautiful and moving film.
 

VOD: Scala!!! (dirs:

"Certain cinemas showed certain types of films.  The Scala did all of it."!

This documentary about the cherished Scala independent cinema in London's King's Cross, with its own unique character housed in an ageing theatre and then cinema from 1978-1993, is a real love-letter to the old days of rep cinema.  It is impossible for today's cinema-chain homogenised cinemagoers to fully understand the importance of independent venues like London's Scala in the times of the Video Recordings Act and the Thatcher government in particular, but this warmly nostalgic documentary goes quite some way to show its significance.  With a great array of alt-culture icons who actually experienced it,  the film also boasts a fantastic array of pictures and film clips that capture the favour and range of the Scala's offerings that were otherwise largely unavailable, and certainly not in mainstream cinemas.  As this film goes on, it does tend to rely more on personal drug/sex anecdotes rather than the films and dispenses with the Scala's actual demise with something of a resigned shrug.   From personal memory, the building reflected the dire state of many of the UK's ageing fleapits at the time (pre-multiplexes for the most part), but - allied with the BBC's Videodrome slot on late-night TV - it gave access to more than just standard Hollywood fare.  Overall, this is a well-made and well-researched documentary that preserves a particular time and experience in UK cinemagoing.  As an added bonus, have fun identifying the short film clips playing throughout the end credits!
 

VOD: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Mutant Mayhem (dirs; Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears, 2023)

"We wouldn't have K-Pop without humans!"

With the origin story (again) and villain set-up delivered reasonably efficiently upfront, the film moves forward fifteen years to pit our teen protagonists on their first major mission against criminal mastermind Superfly.  The animation is in a  painterly and grungy style that is a clear nod to SpiderVerse, and the overall darker and serious tone targets a slightly older demographic than the live-action movies.  Instead of a reliance on slapstick and caricatures, this version delivers pop-culture references, rapid-fire slick banter and reasonable emotional beats in these teens' search to fit in.  The soundtrack that mixes R&B/hip-hop with Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross atmospherics gives the film a fresh feel for the franchise.  Above all else, these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles actually sound like teenagers!  The need to fill the first half-hour with the Turtles/Shredder/April backstories is questionable, and whilst this is hardly an essential film, it does a good job of dramatising the source material for today's audience.  
 

FILM: Argylle (dir: Matthew Vaughn, 2024)

"I can't believe what's happening to me!"

Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is a best-selling author with a series of books about suave fictional superspy Argylle (Henry Cavill), but as her stories come too close to mirroring real-world espionage, she finds herself being pursued by an international crime gang and gets embroiled with a real-life spy (Sam Rockwell).  The film gets off to a cracking start with a preposterously lively episode in the fictional world, but in spite of the many twists and turns in the considerably more static and talky second half, the story is relatively simple and  film runs out of steam.  The few fights/action scenes are frantic and energetically staged, the well-curated pop/disco soundtrack is fun, but it is clear that the film would have benefitted from more comedy Cavill action.  Whilst not the first film to follow this kind of tale, the story developments work satisfactorily and play out quite nicely, and Bryce Dallas Howard and the great Sam Rockwell deliver the lead pair's relationship with easy professionalism.  Overall, Argylle has effective ideas and moments, ending up good rather than great overall but reasonably entertaining.  The early-mid-credits scene takes the meta-shenanigans even one step further!