VOD: I Came By (dir: Babak Anvari, 2022)

"This is your doing."

This interesting, low-key but suitably tense British thriller finds an anti-establishment graffiti writer Toby (George MacKay) and his mate breaking into homes of the rich to tag, but an unfortunate discovery in the basement of a former judge puts them all in a dire situation.  The film benefits by being well shot and tightly edited from the outset, accompanied by an effective synth-driven score by Isobel Waller-Bridge.  The character arcs and structural deployment of the main characters are interesting and not always predictable, although the occasional simplification grates (Toby listens to loud heavy metal and follows activists on the internet but lives with his mother), and worthwhile issues of inequality, young male rage, ethnicity and policing feel lightly touched upon at the expense of delivering story.  The cast is very strong and enjoyable to watch: it is good to see MacKay playing a modern-day character which he delivers with his usual intensity and depth; Hugh Bonneville delivers a very well-controlled antagonist role here; Kelly Macdonald gives sensitivity to the role of Toby's mother as the film develops; and there is a sincere turn from Percelle Ascott as Toby's friend.  For a small British film, I Came By is well made, delivered effectively and keeps interest right to the end.
 

VOD: Love In The Villa (dir: Mark Steven Johnson, 2022)

"You always cease to amaze me."

A Romeo And Juliet-obsessed American third-grade teacher gets dumped by her boyfriend right before their planned romantic trip to Verona, but she decides to go alone, only to find a handsome muscular wine-rep Brit already installed in her holiday apartment via a double booking.  This is clearly conventional rom-com territory, as their initial animosity and prank-sparring starts to give way to romantic feelings, national stereotypes are unleashed at every opportunity and the rom-com genre machinations are so formulaic that you could fast forward to the final quarter of an hour without missing any surprising.  Nevertheless, it is all very pleasant and undemanding, tourist Italy looks lovely,  and - thankfully, as most of the film is a two-hander set in the apartment - the two leads (also a couple in real life) both perform well, with Tom Hopper delivering the stoic Brit comedy effectively and a delightful performance from Kat Graham that elevates the material.
 

VOD: Me Time (dir: John Hamburg, 2022)

HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY TO MY BLOG!

REVIEW No. 1350!

"There's no way I'm f***ing a tortoise!"

This film is the very definition of a dated mismatched-buddy comedy starring Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg, and for the most part it is as crass and desperate as expected, as a family man (Hart) gets a few days away at his estranged friend-from-former-days' birthday trip.  Watching middle-aged men trying to recapture their youth to comedic effect rarely works in this sort of film, and nothing much of interest happens here.  The film drowns in a sea of seemingly-improvised excessive dialogue that simply floats by.  Hart overacts and over-talks, the dependable Wahlberg is oddly subdued, and overall Me Time does little to truly entertain.

 

VOD: Dog (dirs: Reid Carolin and Channing Tatum, 2022)

"It doesn't make us feel warm and fuzzy inside.  It is what it is."
 

Dog offers a simple and very sincere story of a brain-injured soldier (Channing Tatum) desperate to get back into active duty but finds himself unwanted, who gets tasked with taking a military war-traumatised dog on a road trip to its handler's funeral.  The road trip of course enables dog and soldier to bond as they encounter a range of colourful characters along the way on their journey.  Tatum deploys all his industrial-strength charm, sincerity and easy comedic skills here, and the film balances both the soldier's and the dog's stories well.  Ultimately, the film offers little more than its basic story suggests, but it is told well in a surprisingly unsentimental manner and comes across as a real human story with simple dignity.

VOD: Ambulance (dir: Michael Bay, 2022)

"You shouldn't have worn f***ing sandals, dude!"
 

In Michael Bay's post-lockdown-produced action fest, estranged brothers (Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul Mateen II) team up for a bank heist that goes wrong and end up escaping on an ambulance with a paramedic and - entirely coincidentally, of course - the badly wounded cop that one of them shot in the raid.  The film very quickly benefits from its COVID production limitations and tight focus by starting off reasonably grounded and character-based, but once the action starts it is absolutely frantic, tight and relentless in typical Bay style: lots of shooting, lots of running, lots of shouting, impossible car chases, lots of dry one-liners and of course plenty blowing up.   The two leads are fine and work well together, but particularly of note is Eiza Gonzalez as the seen--it-all paramedic.  Playing at times like a contemporary version of Speed or a particularly lively episode of TV's 24, Ambulance offers spritely, daft and energetic action entertainment that does not outstay its welcome but is instantly forgettable.

VOD : A-ha The Movie (dirs: Thomas Robsahm and Aslaug Holm, 2022)

"Mood is everything."

This thorough and well-assembled music documentary follows the Norwegian pop band A-ha from its earliest beginnings to the present day and their MTV Unplugged performance preparations.  Perhaps the tactic of conducting separate interviews with the band members accentuates the feeling of dissociation from each other that the film markedly conveys, but a strength is that the tactic enables good portraits of the three individuals to emerge and some stark honesty about each other and themselves.  The film employs a very good range of archive material together with some cute linking Take On Me-style style animations, and there is a pleasingly deep dive into the very early days, although overall the film offers little new to surprise the fans.  Like the band, the movie is tinged with typical Scandi-melancholia putting across a barely-existent professional friendship between three very separate musicians with differing ambitions and creative needs, emphasised well in the film as their huge success in the 80s also brought huge tensions between pop success/record company demands and the band's artistic ambitions.  The ending of the movie is suitably bleak, as a very personal reveal shows that Magne's heart was literally broken by the band, making the inevitable closing play of the poptastic Take On Me sound unexpectedly sad and hollow. 

 

VOD: Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (dir: Jeff Fowler, 2022)

"Feels like the Owls and the Echidnas have been fighting each other for centuries."
"Like Vin Diesel and The Rock!"

Starting off on the Mushroom Planet where Robotnix was marooned at the end of the original film, a new nemesis for Sonic and an ally for the villain is introduced, and with the opening sequence this sequel quickly establishes its lively old-school cartoon action vibe. At times feeling more like a modern Saturday-morning-TV-cartoon, there is nevertheless sufficient snark and laid-back sarcasm/pop-culture referencing to lift the film.  The Sonic character looks more nuanced this time, and the integration of CG animation and real life is mostly seamless and impressive.  As the strength of the first film lay in the relationship between Sonic and Tom (James Marsden) and their interplay, unfortunately Marsden is unwisely sidelined for the first half in a weak wedding subplot, although young viewers would probably prefer the focus on Sonic and his other animated cohorts here.  Quite why Hollywood thinks that a children's game property such as this needs a movie that runs over two hours is questionable - for example, a dance-off sequence drags on very unnecessarily - but overall this film goes some way toward matching the energy and fun of the original film.
 

VOD: Benediction (dir: Terence Davies, 2022)

 "There's only one thing worse than remaining in the past, mother, and that's begrudging the future."

This earnest British period (World War I) drama charts celebrated war poet Siegfried Sassoon's journey through his emerging anti-war stance, his creative life and his personal relationships, with the questioning younger incantation (Jack Lowden) juxtaposed with the older embittered self (Peter Capaldi).  The cast is impeccable, with both lead actors providing excellent character work, and with notable supporting performances from Ben Daniels as young Sassoon's counsellor and Jeremy Irvine as his obnoxiously self-absorbed lover Ivor Novello.  Incorporating real contemporary black and white war footage works well for the most part, although some of the narrative and filmic devices used are less convincing and feel self-indulgent.  The film is somewhat dour and self-conscious in style, but it works best when the script with wit and intelligence, and it is possible that there could have been more time spent with the older Sassoon to give the film more balance.

VOD: Everything Everywhere All At Once (dirs: Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022)

"We can do whatever we want."

This indie favourite stars the magnificent Michelle Yeoh at her energetic best as Evelyn Wang, dealing with her demanding family, their laundrette business and an unfriendly tax office, and at the same time finding herself becoming the reluctant and unlikely saviour of the multiverse!  This indie favourite is attention-grabbing and frenetic from the outset, packed full of rapid-fire ideas and creative delivery, with inventive visuals, unexpected camerawork and dynamic use of sound, with an unexpected eclectic mix of references from Ratatouille to The One to Wong Kar- Wai.  It offers such a relentless barrage of beguiling and surreal ideas that it careers along in a hugely entertaining and offbeat manner, with mention for Jamie Lee Curtis at her comedy character best as the relentless tax officer.  The film is inventive, laugh-out-loud silly at times and simply a pure blast of cinematic fun yet - bizarrely - also utterly life-affirming by the end.
 

VOD: RRR (dir: S.S. Rajamouli, 2022)

"The shepherd will travel however far to retrieve the missing lamb."

With the pre-title sequence clocking in at forty minutes and a run-time of just over three hours, this lauded Hindi historical action epic offers huge entertainment and takes the viewer on a real journey.  Set in British-ruled/pre-partition 1920, RRR has all the heightened reality expected of an Indian blockbuster on a massive scale, as a young girl is snatched from a tribal village by the ruling white leaders, a highly-trained man from the village (Bheem) is sent to bring her back and a superhumanly strong officer (Raju) is tasked with stopping him.  In a nice touch, the film develops Bheem and Raju's close friendship very effectively before they realise they are actually each other's nemesis.  The film shows some ambitious use of camera, and there are many classic Bollywood elements present - romance, undying friendship (touchingly conveyed here), anachronistic modern song/dance numbers (which are all very good), mesmerisingly insane action set pieces - all of which make RRR an exhausting but utterly compelling and massively enjoyable film.