VOD: Back In Action (dir: Seth Gordon, 2025)

"I think I might be airsick."
"OK - not in the air yet, though..."

Back In Action sees the welcome return of Cameron Diaz after a long break, partnered with Jamie Foxx in another slick cookie-cutter Netflix action-comedy as former CIA couple, now living in suburbia with a couple of teenage kids and forced on the run when their cover is unexpectedly blown and their previous final mission comes back to haunt them.  As is standard for this type of enterprise, the film looks very glossy, has a couple of huge expensive-looking set pieces and some good physical/stunt work, with the rather obvious comedy being mostly based around generation-gap and culture-clash differences (and Jamie Demetriou as an incredibly irritating MI6-wanabee).  The material is elevated considerably by Diaz and Foxx's easy professionalism and energy in both the action and family/comedy elements.  The first half is the more interesting, as the film grinds to a halt halfway through and then limps along to the end with a lot of running around and a reasonable concluding chase along London's South Bank/River Thames (with some attractive night shooting) and a sequel-baiting ending.  The formula may be over-familiar, but Back In Action is pleasant enough if forgettable entertainment. 
 

VOD: The Substance (dir: Coralie Fargeat, 2024)

"This is network TV, not a f**king charity!"

Coralie Fargeat's intriguing and stylish body-horror update of the Dorian Gray story follows the diminishing fortunes of Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), an ageing actress/TV fitness guru in an age-conscious industry who seeks rejuvenation through a secretive treatment with very disturbing consequences.  Clearly pitched somewhere between David Lynch and 80s David Cronenberg with a bit of Kubrick thrown in for good measure, its shiny sterile design provides an effective backdrop to the unpleasant transformative body-horror that the unwitting protagonist suffers, amplified by unnerving dramatic extreme close ups and an unflinching camera.  Demi Moore truly shines in the lead role with a very open and fearless performance that mines the character's vulnerability and sadness to good effect, Dennis Quaid brings to life the unsavoury sleazy TV executive well and Margaret Qualley handles the character arc of Elisabeth's younger incarnation with great energy.  At its heart the film has a somewhat simple idea, but the film makes salient points effectively regarding the ephemeral nature of the entertainment industry, gender inequality and the fetishistic superficial values of the modern world, provocative in both its exposure of issues and its treatment of the human body. but it also delivers on the squelchy body-horror front as well with a bloody large-scale Grand Guignol finale that would make Brian Yuzna proud, all of which makes The Substance a bold and interesting movie to watch.   
 

VOD: Perfect Days (dir: Wim Wenders, 2024)

"Why can't things just stay the same?"

Originally considered as a documentary, this much-admired Oscar-nominated film is a gentle and perfectly-formed treat that follows the simple and ordered daily life of Hirayama (played superbly Koji Yakusho), a custodian of public toilets in Tokyo, and the things he enjoys - nature, reading, music - with small but significant reveals about his wider life along the way through people he encounters.  Veteran Wim Wenders (who also co-wrote) paints a masterful portrait of an ordinary man who finds fulfilment in a busy and complicated world.  It is beautifully shot, with wonderful use of composition and and eye for finding beauty in the everyday.  The film makes a clear point about living an analogue life - print books, cassette tapes, camera film, but Hirayama does have a mobile phone as a utility) - and like its protagonist, it is a quiet, precise and gentle movie that finds its pleasures in the little details and simple moments in life that everyone can feel.  The restrained and beautiful ending packs a real and unexpected emotional punch to a most positive and life-affirming film.    
 

VOD: Speak No Evil (dir: James Watkins, 2024)

"Our normal isn't their normal.  They're just a bit more - I don't know - unvarnished."

This swift remake of the 2022 Danish thriller relocates the action to England and sees two families strike up a holiday friendship that leads to the London couple being invited to the other couple's isolated rural retreat, where the clashing values and cultures increasingly revealing themselves to unnerving effect and leading to an ultimately devastating situation in this very grim but generally satisfying pulpy movie.  Reminiscent of the stylish 80s/90s psychological thrillers from the likes of Sluizer, Haneke and Osterdahl, the performers are very committed, the claustrophobic situation is delivered effectively and there is a gloriously-handled moment of realisation over the rural son's actual situation. James McAvoy's excellent, unbridled and very physical alpha-male performance dominates the movie, nicely contrasted by Scott McNairy's finely-judged everyman, with Mackenzie Davies and Aisling Franciosi working well with their slowly-developing character arcs as their respective wives.  The final act in particular may feel very familiar, but overall this is a solid take on the genre.

 

VOD: Longlegs (dir: Osgood Perkins, 2024)

"Is it scary being a lady FBI agent?"
"Yeah."

The familiar premise of an hyper-intuitive young female FBI agent tracking a long-standing serial killer with occult overtones and a link to her past is given a reasonably creepy outing in this unexpected box-office hit.  With its eerie hallucinatory soundscape and bleak and gloomy visual style, the film relies on its simplicity for its effectiveness in creating jump-scares and general atmosphere.  Maika Monroe gives an intense, chilly and precisely-controlled performance as Agent Lee Harker, with Blair Underwood contrasting nicely as her more seasoned family-man lead on the case, and Nicolas Cage uses his unsettlingly unpredictable skills to good effect in the titular antagonist role.  The film plays like an extended grim early episode of The X-Files and is perhaps a case of more hype over substance, and the actual plot mechanism becomes increasingly unlikely, the third act still pays off nicely.

 

VOD: Cocaine Bear (dir: Elizabeth Banks, 2023)

"It's demented or something!"

In this cult comedy hit, a large bear in a National Park finds and ingests a large stash of cocaine and picks off the locals.  It is clearly designed as a throwback to 80s creature-features, the surprise (and perhaps inexplicable) starring of Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich and Ray Liotta with Elizabeth Banks directing makes it hard to determine if the film is a genuine affectionate parody or just a weakly-scripted and rather slow retro-styled cheapie.  Some low-rent hillbilly stereotype characters (complete with jarringly swearing children) and laboured comedic moments are just about outweighed by some effective FX work and well-delivered thriller sequences, so it really depends whether or not you are in the mood to embrace the daft premise and go along for the ride.  There are also two end-credits sequences.

 

VOD: Caligula - The Ultimate Cut (dir: Tinto Brass, 1979/2024)

"I had to take my destiny into my own hands."

Running at nearly three hors, this new and extensively restored, re-edited and reconstructed cut purports to be the closest yet to the director's original vision of this notoriously troubled 1979 movie, through painstaking restoration of previously unused footage, new music, some effects work and the removal of the Guccioni-sanctioned hardcore, er, inserts.  This new version does achieve its aim of restoring focus on character, the dramatic story and its stars' performances to some extent, but the basic story remains and it does still look like a grandiose folly with its painfully slow pace, expensive cheap-looking sets and mannered theatrical-style performances, with occasional flashes of the excesses of sex and violence remaining.