Change Your Image
Ayupgeeza
Reviews
Saltburn (2023)
Promising characterisation, but fails to deliver
It doesn't take long to realist that there is nothing particularly original in the plot of this movie. More or less from the outset it promises to be a more debauched, British version of The Talented Mr Ripley, and ultimately it never strays too far from that tag.
Having thus tempered expectations, there is enough in the first hour or so of this film to offer some encouragement that the film could at least be watchable.
Our protagonist Oliver (Barry Keoghan) is a scholarship boy at Oxford. Initially ostracised from the in-crowd by his lack of wealth or social grace, he works his way into the orbit of the charming, dashing and rich Felix (Jacob Elordi), and is ultimately invited to the titular family home. There he is introduced to the bizarre world of the British aristocracy and the idiosyncratic characters that populate it.
Having established this fish-out-of-water narrative, and despite the sterling efforts of its cast, the plot then begins to drift. We are offered glimpses of what might have been - the relationship between Oliver and Felix's sister Venetia (Alison Oliver), in particular, briefly offers opportunity for real interest and intrigue - but the film eschews these in favour of a far more well-worn and unchallenging path.
As a consequence, the second half of the film - which is written to be rich in twists, reveals and shocks - becomes bland, predictable and - frankly - boring.
There are strong performances throughout the film - Rosamund Pike, as Felix's mother, is particularly engaging and amusing, and attempts admirably to carry much of the second half of the film. Jacob Elordi, though slightly unconvincing as a British aristocrat, looks nevertheless to have a bright future ahead of him. Richard E. Grant, as Felix's father, is good value as well, even if his character is a little one-dimensional.
And there are interesting characters who are never properly explored. Pamela (Carey Mulligan) is a guest at Saltburn who has overstayed her welcome, but is discarded as swiftly as she is introduced. Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) is Oliver's rival for Felix's attention and funding, and provides a character that is well-drawn, well-performed and interesting, but again disappears from view in the latter stages of the film. This is particularly disappointing as Archie Madekwe does a great job of balancing his character's contradictions: intellectual but belligerent, confident but desperate, charming but hostile.
The final result has some strong moments and some good performances, but ultimately fails to develop into a worthy film. At 2 hours and 7 minutes in length, it feels at least half an hour too long, and I confess it was ultimately a relief to finally be able to leave the cinema.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Lacks the charm of its prequels
I loved the first GotG, and enjoyed Vol. 2 a lot. For me they were original, quirky, funny films with an awesome soundtrack, great action sequences and a real feel-good factor to them.
This third instalment attempts to carry some of those traits over, but it also wants to be a serious, emotional film as it works its way through Rocket's tortuous back story. These two opposing threads make for uncomfortable bedfellows, and it hits from the very start of the movie. Any anticipation I felt for the film dissipated rapidly in the first 10 very depressing minutes, and I struggled to regain much enthusiasm for it. Perhaps this was an inevitable consequence following the events of the last Avengers movie, but even so I didn't feel it was handled all that well.
This was despite a pretty engaging revenge plot and a compelling and superbly portrayed primary antagonist. Adam Warlock was a welcome if somewhat underexplored addition to the cast, and a wide variety of imaginative and frequently grizzly selection of supporting characters were generally a bonus.
In fact it was the Guardians themselves who disappointed. Rocket and Star-Lord were largely humourless throughout. The three female guardians, including - strangely - Mantis, melded into the same universally angry, shouty character. Only Drax seemed to me to add value, as he was both funny and had a nice bit of character development rolled into it.
All in all, though this wasn't a bad film, it wasn't the film I was hoping it would be.
Missing (2023)
"Life through a lens" approach undermines a decent film
This film's predecessor, Searching, presented an interesting idea: shooting an entire film viewed through a computer (or phone) screen. It didn't exactly work as a concept - we spend all day staring at screens, so God knows why the filmmakers thought we'd want to go to the cinema to do the same thing - but it was original and it was creative, so thumbs up to the producers for trying something new. Plus the film was otherwise entertaining and well performed, which made it an attractive watch.
Having failed to learn the lesson from Searching, the filmmakers adopted exactly the same approach for Missing: let's view this entire story through a computer screen.
Two problems with this: one, it's been done, so whatever credit you got for being original has been lost. And two, whereas Searching mostly managed to work with this concept fairly seamlessly, with Missing there are far too many points where the concept is stretched far too thin, and starts becoming a real distraction.
For example, early in the movie the protagonist is hosting a party on Father's Day, but is missing her dead father. However, to abide by the concept, the scene is presented as a short-cut series of phone videos of other people, with the character shown looking a bit moody in the background. So, while the point is successfully communicated, it's impossible to get a sense of emotion or empathy with the character, and the whole scene feels very stale.
The result, sadly, is both tortuous and infuriating. Which is a particular shame because behind it there is a decent film with some surprising humour (real-time Google translate was particularly entertaining) and no shortage of tension. Some of the performances feel very wooden at points, but because the whole thing is presented at arm's length I don't think it would have mattered if they had been performed beautifully.
So, if you've not seen Searching or Missing, watch Searching and give this a miss. And if you enjoyed Searching, don't ruin that enjoyment by watching this film.
Renfield (2023)
A poor imitation of Dead Pool
The early stages of this film feel like a gentle homage to Dead Pool, only without Ryan Reynolds' charisma. Protagonist narrative? Check. Self-aware commentary? Check. Inappropriate humour? Check. Excessive violence and gore? Check.
And perhaps if it had held on to that thread, Renfield might have made a coherent film. Nicolas Hoult is, after all, very good as the Hugh Grant-lite bumbling British chap who also happens to be an insect-fuelled butcher, and he appears surprisingly comfortable with the action sequences. But unfortunately the film gets distracted by its secondary story arcs. Can Awkwafina avenge her dead father? More importantly, do we care?
Nic Cage is, inevitably, the star of this particular show, and he has a lot of fun with the Dracula character. Perhaps a little too much fun at times, and there are moments where a little direction or judicious editing might have helped him along a bit, but generally his presence on the screen is to be welcomed. However, he ends up ceding second billing to Awkwafina, and though her character is amusing at points, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the film could have done with a lot more Cage and a lot less of her.
The result is a film that lets itself down. There is plenty of good here, but it isn't pulled together at all well, and the result is a bit of a mess. And perhaps the most damning indictment of this movie is that, despite only being a shade over an hour and a half long, it seriously dragged.
Scream VI (2023)
No-one here is trying to make a good movie
Naturally, don't expect brilliantly original plot lines or dialogue.
Obviously it's a Scream movie, so the increasingly cliched "movie in a movie" concept is still there. And every other tired trope of slasher movies is also present, from idiotic heroes committing the same stupid errors (apparently it's vital to get the attention of the murderous villain before shooting him, even if it means he can run away), through to the remarkable ability of key characters to survive multiple stab wounds to the abdomen without slowing down in any way. The villains of the piece are fairly obvious, as are the gaping plot holes. And of course, as the movie points out, everything is just a bit bigger, louder and gorier than previous instalments, because it's a sequel.
However, if you can get past all of that predictable silliness there are some worthy performances from the ensemble cast. Courtney Cox and Hayden Panettiere both show up to give the film franchise authenticity, but both are more or less redundant and the film is instead carried pretty well by the young cast carrying on from where they left off in 5. Each of the 'core 4', as they call themselves, presents as a fairly well-developed character not, mercifully, plucked off the shelf, and they all interact convincingly.
There are also some decent set-pieces, including some high-altitude ladder hijinks, lots of blood and gore and more stabbings than you can shake a stick at.
So, all told, it's a pretty poor movie, It's overlong, and large sections of it are either tedious or predictable or both. But if you can sit through all of that, there is some enjoyment to be had from the few things the film does well.
Knock at the Cabin (2023)
Unfulfilling, baffling plot
It is certainly not impossible to make a quality, serious film with a ludicrous, nonsensical plot. However, the more ludicrous the plot, the harder the script has to work in order to make sense of it. Knock at the Cabin is unequivocally an absurd film, but at no point does that sense of the laughably absurd dissipate.
Which is unfortunate because Knock at the Cabin is not without its merits. Fans of M. Night Shymalan will recognise his elegant and suspenseful cinematography. Each member of the cast offers a strong performance. But they are working with a problematic concept and a script that fails to deliver throughout.
The result is, regrettably, unenjoyable. It becomes increasingly difficult to invest in the characters as the film progresses, with the result that any tension dissipates rather than builds. As the film was reaching its denouement I found myself caring less and less about the outcome. If there was some overarching point being made about faith and religion, I was too bored by the end of the film to pay attention to it.
As we left the cinema we - most unusually - didn't discuss the film. Frankly, there was nothing to discuss.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Lunacy. Brilliant lunacy.
At the heart of this film is a simple and fairly well-worn story about a mother (Michelle Yeoh) - she of conservative upbringing and strong work ethic - trying to understand her liberal and slightly rudderless daughter (Stephanie Hsu).
But how this story is told is a bit bonkers. The daughter manifests as an inter-dimensional being of unimaginable terror, bent on the destruction of the multiverse - and the mother is required to tap into the powers of her various alter egos from across the same multiverse in order to defeat her. Along the way we plumb the depths of the daughter's chaotic psyche and the writers' imaginations, as Yeoh taps into different universes featuring sausage-fingered humans, talking racoon chefs, robot grandfathers and a version of her movie star self. There are numerous homages to different movie genres, from fight scenes straight out of the Jackie Chan school of choreography to extensive comic-book superhero pastiches.
The concept is brilliant lunacy and the execution is almost flawless. Yeoh and Hsu are perfectly cast, Ke Huy Quan is a revelation as he switches apparently without effort between his completely bi-polar alter egos, and Jamie Lee Curtis is in equal parts terrifying and hilarious. Surprisingly, for a fantasy film, the cast is able to dictate proceedings without being dominated by CGI and special effects.
As is the way of cinema these days, the film is over-long and does drag slightly in the last quarter. But that doesn't undermine what is a funny, imaginative, thought-provoking and intelligent film.