Tags: blog, film, family, 2025
Author: KickingK
Date: Friday August 29th, 2025
Also cute and fluffy!
How to discuss a remake of the Lilo & Stitch? I’m a big believer in the idea that remakes, reimaginings etc should be judged on their own terms. Ignore the past, that still exists, it’s still yours to own, focus on the new and judge it by today’s standards.
The problem here is that I just can’t do that. Lilo & Stitch is indelibly a part of my movie watching life and I can’t watch this new version with fresh eyes.
So, one of the highest pieces of praise I can say about this new version is that where they have made changes they’ve done so thoughtfully and with care.
The most obvious is the previous films biggest flaw: Jumba’s change of heart. It never made sense and always looked like the result of a rushed script. This absolutely fixes that problem and makes the film work for the modern age, where the powerful and exploitative are so firmly entrenched in their destructive path.
In fact Jumba and Pleakly are something of a triumph. There odd couple dynamic actually working a lot better as two out of sorts humans than it did in the original. Pleakly’s completely unreserved enthusiasm for life on earth is one of the highlights of the entire film, Billy Magnussen’s elastic face work overtime to wring every last drop out each joke.
The other biggest script change is focusing the story a lot more on Nani. Here, the switch to live action helps to focus on the drama of the family as whole. Nani is given her own story, with her own wants and needs, and has a bit more agency in this version. This works particularly well in the scenes with both Lilo and Nani. Both Maia Kealoha and Sydney Agudong are superb in their roles and their relationship is completely believable.
The downside is that the new realism highlights the original stories weaknesses. The tension between the family and their social worker was fine for an animation told from the point of view of Lilo. But when the film makes us feel like we’re looking at a real family with real issues of grief being worked through, having a simplistic plot about a social worker breaking the family up doesn’t fit anymore.1
There’s also a distinct flatness with the cinematography and music as well. Whereas the original had the most superbly painted backgrounds and landscapes, here we just get drone shots of Hawaii looking like any other tourist resort. It looks like a great place to stay but the original looked magical. And whilst Elvis is used much like he was last time, the film doesn’t hang its hat on it. Now it’s just some music for some of the scenes, rather than a good chunk of the films identity. It lacks flair, which isn’t something you should be saying about Elvis.
But, crucially, it still works. Like an OK cover of a truly great song, the story of Lilo & Stitch is, much like Stitch himself, bullet proof. This cover is very funny, pulls at the heart strings and is a good time from start to finish. Youngster going into the story for the first time will absolutely love it.
But if you have a choice for which one to show them first, stick with the original.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
1. Part of me wishes they'd leant into it. Ditched the crowd pleasing stuff about aliens with guns and instead made a kitchen sink drama with a magical realist Stitch. Basically, what I'm asking for is for Shane Meadows to adapt Skizz.
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Tags: blog, film, animation, fantasy, 2025, essential
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday August 28th, 2025
Alrighty Meow
Young girl Karin is abandoned by her dad at a temple where she makes the acquaintance of a ghost cat called Anzu.
The most obvious point of reference for this film is Studio Ghibli. This film borrows heavily from My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away1 with the obvious limitation that it hasn’t got anything like the budget of those films.
But it turns that into a virtue, this is a low budget film about low budget people. The characters are…well they’re…let’s just say: highly flawed.
Karin is a con-artist, always trying to manipulate people for her own gain, or just to be spiteful. She’s very much her Father’s daughter. Anzu is a gambler who wastes the money he does earn and cheats on the bets he makes. He also goes to the toilet where ever he pleases, because he’s a cat.
For the supporting cast there’s: two doofus boys who are dumb-struck by the new, pretty girl; a gullible temple attendant; a depressed god; a tunnelling frog; assorted sad-sack demons; a bunch of boring forest spirits who just hang around and play cards; and a run-down, Japanese town that’s sweltering, borderline melting, in the summer heat.
Everything feels real and personal. It matters because you recognise these people and their lives. Even the depressed gods. It feels like a British kitchen sink drama, with all of its money problems and annoying scrotes. It is exquisitely well observed and extremely funny as a result.
Its depiction of spirituality felt close to revolutionary. Here, spiritual enlightenment isn’t wisdom, or calm or devotion. It’s the willingness to get the crap kicked out of you in a fight you can’t win because your neighbour needs to be stood up for. To have this stated so boldly, so eloquently, is very timely for the world right now.
This film is a minor key masterpiece that deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as any Ghibli film you care to mention. A heartfelt, joyful, beautiful triumph.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
1. Oh, and Trainspotting. It literally pilfers a scene directly from Trainspotting.
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Tags: blog, film, comedy, family, 2025
Author: KickingK
Date: Tuesday August 26th, 2025
A Bear of Very Considerable Heart
The title pretty much describes everything you need to know about this film. It’s Paddington and all the characters you’ve grown to love over the last two Paddington films, but on holiday in the jungle.
Once again, all those characters are intensely likeable. And once again, even (especially) the villains are thoroughly enjoyable, played with camp and freedom, getting their comeuppance in a suitably joyful manner.
It’s not just the characters that are lifted straight from the first two films. The cinematography has a great eye for a good shot, but also tells its story coherently, even (especially) when the slapstick starts to snowball.
The meticulous plotting is back. Just about everything is either a set up or a pay-off, it all clicks together satisfyingly, like a really good Lego set.
The laughs are evenly paced throughout the film and it’s never, ever boring, not for a minute. And it’s pro-immigration message couldn’t be more welcome and well received than right now.
What it doesn’t quite bring from the first two films is that little bit of magic they both had, that extra special sparkle. To a certain extent it doesn’t need to. The warm afterglow from Paddington 2 is so great that it envelopes this entire film like a big bear hug. You want to love this film, maybe a bit more than it deserves.
So whilst this is fun and enjoyable enough on its own terms, it only feels like an encore to Paddington 2. But who doesn’t want that?
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, action, 2025
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday August 24th, 2025
Under supervised
There’s a much discussed scene near the start of this movie where Lois Lane stages an impromptu interview with Superman. She asks him difficult questions about his recent actions stopping a war, questions that unsettle and fluster him because he can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t take his actions at face value; that he’s saving lives. It’s an interesting scene as it reveals so much about his character, about how he sees the world through a simple premise, that as long as he’s motivated by virtue, his actions will be (and will be perceived as) virtuous.
The problem with this scene is that, bluntly, Lois Lane is an arsehole. She rattles Superman because she takes on the classic centrist, view-from-nowhere voice that ‘respectable’ newspaper writers habitually use. The one where “some people might say…” is used to speak utter bullshit but not be held responsible for saying it. Where the whims of an aggressive, multi-billion dollar, military-industrial state and a people’s right to exist are points of view that carry equal weight. Where facts and opinion are the same thing.
Superman even tries to call her on out on her bullshit, referring to her quoting warmongers in good faith as silly and dishonest, but lacks the ability to articulate just how offensive this shit is. She even admits that she’s trading on her ignorance to make her point but seems to consider that to be a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
Later, Lois does some actual journalism and finds there is staggeringly obvious corruption involved in the war that makes her questioning of Superman seem embarrassingly naive. Maybe if she had taken the time to learn the first fucking thing regarding the subject she was ‘just asking questions’ about, her and the Daily Globe could have the exposed the corruption and lies and, if not stopped the invasion, helped Superman with the public relations battle.
It may seem a minor point but it really rankled me. It sets the tone for the rest of the film, which wants to acknowledge the precarious political situation we find ourselves in, but has none of the intelligence, articulation, curiosity or courage to have anything to say about it.
On the positive side, Krypto lights up the screen in every scene he’s in. Hawkgirl’s screech is a delight, Green Lantern’s haircut is a violation of my human rights. Crucially, we get a really good depiction of Superman. His sincerity and good faith shine constantly and is completely believable throughout the entire film.
Sadly, it’s the only believable thing in the film. Unlikeable, paper thin characters stumble their way through a series of black-hole sized plot-holes, all while weightless special effects whirl around with no relationship to physical reality or basic story telling.
A boring waste.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, action, sci-fi, 2025
Author: KickingK
Date: Friday August 22nd, 2025
Lessons Learned from Predator I to Predator III
Lesson One. Tell the story through the action. Don’t have your characters sit around explaining the plot and backstory to each other, that’s just wasting time that would be better spent with something blowing up, which is what we came for. P:KoK1 absolutely rattles along. The total amount of time it spends where someone isn’t being punched, stabbed, shot, blown up or at least threatened with one of those probably amounts to less than five minutes across the entire film. It does not hang about. And yet it still manages to pack in four stories that each have a beginning, a middle and an end. Because the action is the story, not the thing that breaks it up.
Lesson Two. Have the characters do stuff because of who they are. Don’t have your characters do stuff just because that’s the only way for the next big set piece to happen. It just makes them look stupid and we’ll stop believing in them. P:KoK sets its characters up by telling us who they are and what’s important to them. And then everything that they do is because of those two things. They have to suffer the consequences of their decisions, both for good and for bad. There’s nothing complicated here, but it all works.
Lesson Three. Don’t explain everything, we don’t care. Big Alien Wants Big Fight, that’s it. Everything else is background detail and should remain there, in the background. If us scifi nerds want to delve deeper into this stuff2 then we’ll do it anyway. For god sake don’t slow the pace down by explaining stuff. Best case scenario: you ruin the mystery. Worst case scenario: you ruin the film. P:KoK has loads of interesting design stuff that it resolutely, point-blank refuses to slow down for. Blink and oh-no you’ve already missed it, too late there’s another explosion, guess you’re going to have to re-watch the film with your finger over the frame-skip button. There’s more interesting stuff happening in the background here than there is in the combined John Wick films and they last about five weeks.
In summary, this steps over the staggeringly low bar set by modern action films with ease. It’s not as great as Prey but it’s a lot of fun and keeps the anticipation up for Predator: Badlands.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
1. Yes, that’s what I’m calling it. ↩
2. And yes, yes we really do ↩
Tags: blog, film, drama, 2025, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday August 21st, 2025
Forget the music and live
How to discuss a biopic about an art that you know nothing about and a subject of which you know even less? I can’t speak of the veracity of the events, either their literal truth or their faithfulness to the character.
I have to take the film at face value and judge it on its ability to draw me into Maria Callas’ last week on earth. And its ability to make me empathise with her and the people around her.
In this regard, the film is a triumph. The sincerity of its admiration is deft, subtle and gentle. We see her at her best and her worst, the film judges her for neither. It barely explains either, although context is provided by frequent flashbacks, it’s never as simple as Incident A leads to Behaviour B.
But it does reveal a character trying to hold the world at a specific distance. Close enough that she can feel the warmth and adulation of it. But not so close that she has to deal with the messy, often hurtful jostling of it.
Nowhere is that more true than in her interactions with her butler and housekeeper. The relationship between the three is the beating heart of the movie. Watching them gently try to nudge the boundaries of their relationships in order to care for each other, always without acknowledging it. Ferrucio and Bruna by arranging events to see that she is looked after and supported, even (or especially) without her permission. Maria by pushing them away, reminding them of their place, in order to maintain control of her life. Even if her life is what it will cost her.
The overall effect is a deeply contemplative, emotional piece that never tips into melodrama. Beautiful, humanising and deeply sad.
Tags: blog, film, animation, comedy
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday August 17th, 2025
A very goal-orientated film
When Bull finds out that his owners are going to have him neutered, he and his pack of buddies decide to have one big night out before the chop.
What follows is cartoon dog version of frat/sex comedies from the eighties-noughties. Think Porky’s or American Pie. As a result, this film feels old fashioned. It tries its best to convince that it’s shocking and transgressive and that nothing is off limits. And yet it has very clear lines as to what it will and won’t depict. Balls, blood and bums: yup! Dicks, vaginas, vomit: absolutely not. After twenty minutes, once you’ve worked out where the lines are drawn, it all feels very safe.
It’s a shame that it can’t draw more inspiration from Ren & Stimpy. The animation is clearly in debt to it (one scene involving a skunk is a flat-out homage) so it would have been great if it had borrowed some of that duo’s anarchism.
One part that did feel surprisingly modern is the characterisation of Bull and his friends. They’re all quite kind and sweet to each other, they look out for each other and care about each other’s welfare, without asking for anything in return. It’s actually quite good natured, even when they visit a dog sex-club, and the result is that on the occasions when the comedy falls flat, you’re never irritated by the characters.
Thankfully, the comedy is pretty good most of the time. It’s at its best when it’s being smart rather than crude, which admittedly it doesn’t do quite often enough to make this an essential viewing. But often enough to have me chuckling most of the way through and, on the odd occasion when the crudity combines with smart observations on dog behaviour, a few belly laughs as well.
Tags: blog, film, 2025, horror, essential
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday August 14th, 2025
For everything I long to do
Halfway through this movie, there’s a scene that the entire film is built around. Everything before it is working towards this scene. Everything after happens as a consequence. Its premise is a sequence of artistic expression and communal joy so spectacular that it tears a hole in reality. And the thing is, the film barely explains this to you, you get to experience it.
It is spectacular one of the greatest pieces of pure cinema I’ve seen in a long time. A spine tingling, eye-popping, aural overload of the senses. An absolute bravura piece of film making.
The scale of ambition here is breathtaking. Take the sieged-by-vampires horror genre, set it in the prohibition era deep south, have the main characters deeply morally flawed, deal with the racial problems of the time bluntly and with nuance and, and throw in some of the best musical song-and-dance numbers for years.
None of this should work but the scale of the ambition is eclipsed by the scale of the talent and, quite frankly, the swagger of the film makers. Because there’s barely a single element of this movie that is anything below astonishing. I defy anyone to not, at some point in this movie, fall completely in love with the costumes.
Hell, at one point, even the aspect ratios made me gasp.
If I have one criticism and, sadly, I do, it’s that the film has too many endings. They’re all good ones, and it’s clear that Ryan Coogler had a lot to say and wanted to get it all out. But they end up getting in the way of each other, so none of them end up landing as hard as they should.
It’s the only part of the movie where the ambition is too much. Still I would rather watch a film that tries to do too much rather than one that plays it safe. And there is nothing safe about Sinners, it’s electric.
Tags: blog, film, comedy, drama, 2025
Author: KickingK
Date: Wednesday August 13th, 2025
Did you watch University Challenge last night?
A love triangle where the a character has to choose between love and money is a fairly common staple. The best ones offer sharp commentary on society and relationships.
And they do not come any sharper than the first half of Materialists which focuses its laser-like gaze on dating and marriage within our capitalist financial system. I was not expecting just how brutal Celine Song’s assessments of modern relationships would be, laying out harsh realities clearly for the audience without ever slipping into lazy cynicism.
I was also not expecting it to be this funny. Having laid everything clear out in front of the audience, each character is then given enough rope with which to go one step too far and into absurdity. This contains the biggest belly laughs I’ve had from a film so far this year.
Things get a little less clear in the second half though as the films starts to focus on the romance, rather than the commentary. Song’s previous film, the masterpiece Past Lives presented two choices: neither the correct one, both of which would result in regrets, and it’s heartbreaking. It seems as though this is going to pull off the same trick, but as the film moves past the halfway point, it seems to make a decision as to which is the ‘right’ choice for Dakota Johnson’s character, but without fully convincing me.
The result is an ending that neither quite fits the form of a beautiful romance, or subverts it. After the cutting edge of the first half, the ending felt a little blunt. It’s still worth watching for that blistering opening salvo though and there’s enough ideas in here to make me eager for future work from Song.
Tags: blog, film, action, 2025
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday August 10th, 2025
I put more effort into this review than was put into the making of this film
Terrible.
1 Star simply because it passes the Bechdel test like it's not even a thing.
Tags: blog, film, horror, 2025, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday August 10th, 2025
Picking up where we left off
I've loved Danny Boyle since the start. Literally the start of Shallow Grave, when the sound of Leftfield hits you in the chest and the camera hurtles off down the streets of Edinburgh. What an introduction.
I loved him 1as his career exploded, taking him to Hollywood. I loved him as a couple of critical and commercial duds brought him back from Hollywood.
I loved him even more after his absolutely astonishing made-for-tv not-quite-movies.
So when I went to the cinema to see his ultra-low budget, niche-genre, horror film 28 Days Later it felt like there was something at stake, namely his career. It needed to prove to the wider world, people who weren't already on board the Danny Boyle fan train like I was, that he should be given money to keep on making astonishing films.
And that sense of risk was shot right through the film. It was a film that came out swinging, determined to land punch after punch, knowing this could be the last chance its creators got to be this…this much.
But post 2012 Olympics, I’ve found his work…not bad…worse…uninteresting.
-A tepid thriller - Yawn
-Apple Guy : The Movie - Pass
-Exciting young guys are now old and boring - Err, no thanks.
-Rich people : the TV show - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
-What if : Not The Beatles -Absolutely Not
-The Sex PisFUCKOFF!
I haven’t watched anything of his since Trance. Some of it’s probably good but why would I bother when there’s so much more interesting stuff in the world? And what if it wasn’t good? Do I really want to watch as an artist I deeply love slides into mediocrity. No, I absolutely do not.
Boyle revisiting the world of 28…Later was not something I had any enthusiasm for, like a past-it band touring their seminal album on a re-union tour, why would I want to go back to that? Especially as the Zombie/Infected/Undead genre that 28 Days brought roaring back to life has now been thoroughly flogged to death again.
But that trailer though!
So again I go into a Danny Boyle zombie movie with a sense of trepidation, a worry that maybe this won’t work out, a sense that something is at stake. Because failure here means having to admit it’s over, that we’ve drifted too far apart. I’m risking a part of myself just by watching this movie.
Gloriously, this is Garland & Boyle pushing everything as far as they can, trying to be as fresh as possible in a very stale genre. Boyle, my Danny Boyle, is very much back.
Where to start? Firstly, whilst Garland & Boyle understand the genre, they also understand people. Almost all zombie movies and tv shows since 28 Days… have understood the former but not the latter. So here we get people who behave like people, not walking plot devices. 28 Years Later is largely free of the neo-liberal wet dreams of constant, violent individualism that pervades the Walking Dead shows.
Secondly, it’s a British movie. I mean the Brexit analogy is pretty much thrust upon it by default2 but the cutting in of old British movies, the use of actual historical archery techniques and of course, Rudyard Kipling, gives this a heft and feel that’s unique to the genre.
Visually, there’s been a lot of effort put in to just about everything. The movement of the actors playing the infected is particularly impressive. It’s not just some extras running/shuffling around going “aaarrrgghh”. Shaun of the Dead on FFWD, this is not. The motion of the infected is itself grotesque, disturbing and inhuman.
The most commented on camera technique is the use of a bank of iPhones to get a grungy, Matrix style “Arrow-Cam” effect, which is interesting and fun if not revolutionary. However, there’s a scene in a Happy Shopper that is visually stunning. It’s a situation that’s been done a thousand times before but I’ve never seen it shot like this. Shocking, grotesque and beautiful, it’s moments like this that make the film stand out from the pack.
If I have a criticism it’s that I can’t fully form an opinion on the film until I see its sequel(s). This is very much a Part 1 that ends on a To Be Continued… Which means that whilst you would be hoping that the film would wind itself so tight it explodes at the end, that doesn’t happen here. Instead, the film gently, but emotionally, tapers off into the denouement. Which, in a way, is highly atypical of the genre and another reason this film is a bit special. But it does mean that we’re going to have to wait to find out if the early promise resolves into something truly special.
It will be the first Danny Boyle film I’ve been excited about for a long, long time.
1. It’s worth pointing out that Danny Boyle usually works as a team with writer John Hodge (and later, others) and producer Andrew Macdonald. ↩
2. Mainland Britain almost entirely populated by rage-fuelled psychopaths that the rest of Europe want to stay well away from. This shit writes itself. ↩︎
Tags: tv, blog, comedy, drama, 2025, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Saturday August 02nd, 2025
In praise of mid-range TV
Great art should be challenging. Great art should challenge what is possible, should challenge what I am capable of comprehending.
But when I've got home after thirteen hours working two jobs, when I've only got a few hours to sit down and decompress, before I have to go to bed and get up ready to do it all again, I don't want to be challenged. I want to be entertained.
It's times like this that I miss the days before "prestige" tv, before multi-series story arcs and a cast of thousands. I miss being able to switch on an episode of Columbo or Quantum Leap or Star Trek TNG, know who all the characters are within the first few minutes, and then get a story with a start, a middle and an ending.
Poker Face gets this, it's not a challenging show. You don't even have to work out who the murderer is, it just shows you right off the bat. But what Poker Face also understands is that I'm not an idiot and I don't want to be condescended to.
Poker Face is smart. It just puts those smarts into producing a solid, witty, delightful story into every forty five minute episode.
It does have some concessions to modern tv mores. The first and last few episodes of each series act as story bookends, setting up and paying off Charlie Cales' dealing with the Mob and the FBI. But it's not where it's at it's best. It's at it's best in the middle episodes of the series which most closely hew to the syndicated shows like Columbo and Murder, She Wrote that it's so clearly enamoured with. Episodes 5 to 9 of Series 2 in particular is an astonishing run, every one a belter. The John Cho & Melanie Lynskey helmed "The Sleazy Georgian" is the standout. Fun, funny, smart and deeply empathetic. The kind of storytelling that makes you feel connected to the world and the people around you. That makes you feel good about going to bed and getting ready to start the day anew.
Tags: film, blog, comedy, drama, 2025, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday June 08th, 2025
Wanna see a bunch of Nazis get fucked up?
Of course you do, who wouldn't. Well boy have I got the film for you.
This is a portmanteau film featuring four, based on real-life stories (spoilers), all taking place over twenty fours hours in Oakland, 1987. And it is a blast.
The music is absolutely amazing, it is relentlessly funny, the gore is off the scale, every performance is absolutely nailed. There's a surprise guest cameo appearance from someone who abso-bloody-lutely understands the assignment.
It's a love letter to Oakland. To the eighties. To films. To kicking the shit out of Nazis. To teaching clowns how to juggle. To just having a good time.
An actual riot of a film.
Tags: film, blog, comedy, drama, 2025, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Saturday May 31st, 2025
Outdated plot, contemporary and beautiful people
I've not seen the 1993 film that this is a remake of. It's somehow passed me by despite being a big fan of Ang Lee. So I don't know how much has changed from the original. But good lord this film feels weird at times.
The plot is characterised by the kind of high-concept, situation lead set-up common to rom-coms of the eighties and nineties. But the direction takes a little bit of a back seat, allowing the actors the time and space to make their characters entirely believable, despite the patently absurd (and staggeringly predictable) situations the plot places them in.
And it works. That time and space is where the comedy lives. There are plenty of proper belly laughs that come from nothing more than a sideways glance or muted 'harrumph'. Youn Yuh-jung's grandmother managed to steal almost every scene without even moving her face. Understated, character-led comedy is exactly my kind of thing and this film has it in spades.
If I have a criticism of the film, it's the cinematography. It's very basic and lacks flair. It's arguably not a problem for a rom-com, except... art plays a big part in this film. Both Bowen Yang and Han Gi-Chan play artists whose work is genuinely beautiful and yet the film seems almost completely un-interested in exploring that. Which is an issue when that art plays a part of one characters plot-changing and emotional decision. The moment works, the characters make it work, but it would have been so much more powerful if you saw in the art what that character saw. But the film doesn't give you that opportunity.
But I loved this film. It's relentlessly funny. And I believed in the characters even if I didn't believe in the plot. Beautiful.
Tags: tv, blog, sci-fi, thriller, 2025, essential
Author: KickingK
Date: Tuesday May 20th, 2025
There's an episode of the tv series Spaced that features the greatest depiction of clubbing in cinema history. It's greatness is that it understood that a truly great night out isn't just about the club you go to. It's what you're running from, to get to where you end up. It spends most of the episode detailing the tensions and problems of the cast, the bit in the club is literally just a few minutes. But because of the time spent on the tensions and anxieties and problems and fears, you get the release of an epic night out.
Anyway...part way through the second series of Andor, fifteen episodes into a relentless narrative equivalent of a Shepard tone, there's a wedding party scene. And it goes OFF
And maybe Spaced doesn't have the best club scene anymore.
I don't think I can add much to the conversation regarding Andor's greatness, other than my slightly shonky Spaced comparisons. Pick an element: music, costumes, acting, script, anything at all, it's all superb. However, I do want to mention a couple of personal highlights.
Firstly, the brokeneness of the antagonists. Every single character working for the empire is a shell of a human being, living half a life. Too many movie and tv villains are hyper-competent, charismatic, sexy bastards. When the reality is these kind of people are deeply pathetic, emotionally limited turds.
Secondly, all of them are punsished for their loyalty and competence. Literally every single one of them is crushed by the weight of the system they are trying to uphold. If any of them had just clocked in, did the bare minimum and clocked out again they'd have been fine. But the one thing fascism absolutely demands is comformity. Stick your head up too high and it's going to get scythed off.
And lastly, if there's one point that Andor hammers home relentlessly, it's that fascism contains within it the seeds of it's own destruction. Fascism won't work, can never work, will never work because it will always create the conditions that will bring it down. The harder the Empire pushes, the more the people push back.
To go back to that G.K. Chesterton "quote"
Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.
Andor tells us that whilst that victory is long, painful and must be fought for, it is inevitable.
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday January 23rd, 2025
Loneliness and Longing
Daniel Craig is in magnificent form as an older man falling for a much younger, much less secure in his sexuality, guy. It’s impossible to imagine anyone else pulling this role off. Craig’s elegance and magnetism lends perfect credibility to their affair. But his comic timing and generous spirit makes his character soft, vulnerable and immensely likeable.
The plot of the film is slight, but the wonder is in the skill of the film making. The camera is patient. The music doesn’t fit the era but encapsulates the mood. There’s a love scene that’s quite unlike anything I’ve seen before. Craig’s willingness to please, and delight in doing so is joyful.
Over two hours watching Daniel Craig tragically yearning and striving for a deeper human connection, a deeper love, may seem a bit much for a film that doesn’t really add up to much. But I found this to be a deeply lonely and tragic tale that held my emotions the whole way through.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, family, 2024
Author: KickingK
Date: Tuesday June 11th, 2024
Ompéi, Lýkos!
Shot on 16mm film for maximum nostalgia, this is an intentional throwback to the 70’s and 80’s. The most obvious reference point will be The Goonies but it reminded me the most of The Children’s Film Foundation. Low budget films made for children, usually starring children.
This has charm and enthusiasm in spades and is surprisingly rich in its themes. Managing to weave fantasy elements into the story, turning a search for an egg into an epic, high-fantasy quest. It even has a witch.
Another plus point is that, despite its nostalgia, it isn’t trying to lionise the past at the expense of the present. The kids have mobile phones and play with them like kids do. The whole motivation for their quest is they want to play their brand new games console but their mum won’t let them.
A console that they’ve stolen. These kids aren’t angelic, they’re just the right amount of little devils, which makes them hugely engaging.
Sadly, the film is too long and drags quite a bit. I can see why, many of the films best bits are the unnecessary scenes. An extended dance sequence is a highlight. It’s a shame as I think it’s a difficult sell as a kids film, it lacks excitement. And for kids who won’t appreciate the nostalgia, I don’t think it’ll work.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, horror, 2024
Author: KickingK
Date: Friday May 31st, 2024
Love is a knife with a blade for a handle
A couple who ‘collect’ old, near forgotten Irish folk songs get a lot more than they bargain for when they find a song so old it’s in a forgotten language.
This is deliciously creepy and unsettling. There’s little in the way of shocks or scares, but there is an unrelenting commitment to an ever tightening sense of dread. Little is explained, answers as to what is going on just lead to more questions. It’s grim and nasty and always has a sly grin at the side of its mouth.
The sound design is superb. When ‘the song’ is sung it’s really something, absolute dread chills.
There’s something about the measuredness and intelligence of the film making that makes me believe that there’s a lot of Irish folklore and history that’s gone into the backstory of the film. I can imagine that people who are more knowledgable about this subject will get a lot more out of this than I can.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, comedy, drama, 2024, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday May 30th, 2024
Randall Park and Sherry Cola on top, top form
Just how unsympathetic can you make a movies main character? There’s been some great movies centred around truly awful people and the usual way to make the audience enjoy their journey is either by making the character charismatic or by making their situation interesting. The danger there, though, is that it’s possible to make the characters personality flaws likeable, excusable, or even desirable.
Justin H.Min’s ‘Ben’ is deeply unlikeable. The film is careful not to have him do anything thats irredeemably bad but neither is he interesting or charismatic. He’s rather tedious and boring (although admittedly an incredibly gorgeous) person. In fact, the most interesting thing about him is that he’s best friends with Sherry Cola’s ‘Alice’, who absolutely is interesting and charismatic. And if she see’s something in him, well there must be something there.
Except that Alice is also a bit of a shitty person and the thing they see in each other is their own flaws reflected back at them. A fact that means they feel comfortable in each other’s company and can feel seen whilst not being judged.
This is a really funny film where the jokes land often enough to keep you engaged but never overwhelm the drama. There’s a few proper belly laughs in there as well.
There’s a lot of dialogue around internalised racism that feels very personal and insightful, and even manages to mine it for comic potential. I felt like the creators really had something to say about Asian representation in media and they managed to do that in a way that was thought provoking without giving easy answers.
No Easy Answers extends to Ben’s character arc. There’s no lessons learned at the end, no redemption or setting things right. But there is an acknowledgement that things have to change. Maybe he will and maybe he won’t. But the fact that he might feels warm and hopeful.
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday May 30th, 2024
How can a film that re-unites Jessica Hynes and Nick Frost fail?
Well…
Sigh
Where to begin? The direction sucks all the joy out of the actor's attempts to breathe life into the turgid script. Almost every scene is a shot followed by a reverse shot for each line so theres almost never any on-screen chemistry.
There’s some stunning English countryside that’s shot in such a disinterested way that it resembles a Channel 5 documentary.
The script has nothing of any interest. Barely any set ups, almost non-existent payoffs. No themes, no character arcs, nothing to say.
Bizarrely, there’s a line near the end of the film where Dagan and Shulmay argue, that pierces the heart and reveals a great tragedy of unresolved and unseen grief for one of the characters.1 It’s a stunning moment of clarity that glimpses an alternative universe where this film has been made by people who give a shit. Who understand characters, motivation and backstory and are prepared to put the effort in to make a cohesive story for the audience. But it’s only a glimpse, lasting barely a couple of seconds before we’re dumped back into this universe where we’re watching a boring movie made by bored people.
Nick Frost and Nicola Coughlan do everything they can to enliven things but fail. John Macmillan and Paul Kaye very (very) briefly succeed.
At one point, James Acaster slides across a scene like a turd in an oil slick, proving once more there really is no beginning to his talents.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
1. If you get this far into the movie, you’ll know it when you hear it. ↩
Tags: blog, tv, comedy, fantasy, 2024
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday May 30th, 2024
Dead, dead good
The third best thing I can say about Dead Boy Detectives is that if this had been made twenty years ago it would have been one of the most radical pieces of tv of the era. And yet now it’s depictions of same sex relationships feels completely normal. In fact, those relationships are possibly the most ‘normal’ thing about the show. This is a very good thing.
The second best thing I can say about Dead Boy Detectives is the way it handles real world darkness (such as domestic abuse, child abuse, male violence, bureaucratic ‘violence’, homophobia, agoraphobia etc) whilst staying in the framework of a ‘Monster of the Week’ show. It either deals with this stuff head on, via metaphor, or subtly and in the background. There’s a lot going on here, everything feels like it’s about something and the fact that it packs so much in without feeling over stuffed, ponderous or frivolous is a marvel.
And the very best thing I can say about Dead Boy Detectives is that this is just fabulous entertainment. Funny, warm, witty, imaginative, caring. Honestly, the superlatives could keep flowing for pages. The entire cast play their roles to a tee. A special mention has to go to Lukas Gage’s supurrrlative1 Cat King and it’s a wonder that there’s any scenery left at the end after Jenn Lyon has so enthusiastically chewed through it.
Magnificent.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
1. Sorry, not sorry ↩
Tags: blog, film, drama, musical, 2024
Author: KickingK
Date: Tuesday May 28th, 2024
Paul Mescal is wonderful but he’s not an American.
A modern interpretation of the opera by Georges Bizet, this knows what it’s not interested in. It’s not interested in the story, it’s barely interested in the characters. It is however, very interested in the music and the dance. It focuses on tone and feeling, instead of nuts’n’bolts story telling.
The choreography is superb, always down to earth, never showy. It feels like the characters are expressing themselves through the dance, rather than the script. I felt emotionally connected to the dance in a way that I don’t when watching most Hollywood dance routines.
It helps that Nicholas Britell is on his best form, producing a score that is simply gorgeous.
Unfortunately, the film isn’t quite daring enough to overcome the slightness of the story. When the music fades and the dancing stops, the story loses momentum and the fire in the heart cools.
But when they are dancing, it burns very bright indeed.
Tags: blog, tv, comedy, drama, 2024
Author: KickingK
Date: Wednesday May 08th, 2024
Totally Completely Thomasin McKenzie
This show starts with Vivian, her life a mess, contemplating suicide, finding out her grandad has died. The man who raised her from a small child when her parents died in a car accident spilts his estate equally between her and her two elder brothers. John gets his massage recliner chair. Hendrix gets his golf clubs. Vivian gets his huge cliff edge mansion.
Except it’s a set up. It turns out that the huge, vertiginous cliff face on which the house is perched is a hot spot for suicide attempts. Her grandfather’s calling was attempting to dissuade those attempting to jump. And, by passing that calling onto his granddaughter, hopes that she might save herself by saving others.
The undoubted highlight of this series is the family dynamic between the three siblings. Watching each of them bicker and argue, all of them failing to come to terms with their grief and decades of feuding is both funny and heartbreaking. This is one of the most believable onscreen families I’ve seen.
A large part of that is down to Thomasin McKenzie who is approaching Toby Jones’ levels of watchability. Like Jones she has an absolute charisma that is constantly engaging. And yet also seems so completely normal and down to earth. She has an ability to make me believe in any story she’s telling.
My only criticism1 is that there’s two story elements fighting for space in the script: the one about trying to save people from committing suicide and the one about the family coming to terms with grief. And whilst both feed into one another, it’s the family narrative that gets most of the attention. And whilst that’s arguably justified, it’s absolutely wonderful after all, it feels a little unbalanced. Lives are at stake here and yet it gets less screen time than Hendrix’s marriage.
It’s not helped by the fact that Amy, the first suicide attempt that Vivian prevents, is one of the least well drawn characters in the show.
Still, despite the fact that it never quite manages to live up its central premise, there’s enough good stuff here for me to heartily recommend it.
1. Well, apart from the music which is either slightly too kooky for it’s own good or has needle drops that sound like they were chosen and edited by the same people who work on Home and Away. ↩︎
Tags: blog, film, documentary, 2024, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Tuesday May 07th, 2024
#MentalHealth
A fly on the wall documentary chronicling the run up to Ronnie trying to win his seventh World Title in 2022. But the documentary is not overly interested in his sporting achievements, instead it’s far more focused on Ronnie’s often public battles with his mental health. To which Ronnie quips:
all of a sudden it’s cool…I was twenty years ahead of the game, mate.
Ronnie is extraordinarily open and engaging about his problems and methods of coping with them. And the fact that he’s such an engaging and frank personality makes this film endlessly fascinating.
And yet for all that is open and honest about what is talked about, what’s not said left me with more questions than answers. Whilst some of Ronnie’s celebrity friends are free to talk about everything he’s been through, and his father’s prison sentence is discussed with great sensitivity, no mention is made of his past partners. And I didn’t know he had kids until they turned up in footage at the end of the film. His sister appears in family photos but is never even mentioned.
Ronnie talks at great length about his relationship between snooker and his mental health, but there are contradictions that never get questioned. He claims he would rather play well and lose than play badly and win. And yet he seems to hate losing and the documentary never digs in to that dichotomy.
None of this is a criticism, it’s admiral that there are certain areas of his life that he wants to keep private. And just letting him get everything off his chest, unguarded without needing to be defensive is incredibly revealing.
But it does mean that the closer I got to understanding what drives Ronnie O’Sullivan on, the further away I got from understanding him as a complete person. The more answers I got about how he copes with the pressures of his life, the more questions I had about why he did so.
Given Ronnie’s extraordinary life, career, talent and personality, it felt perfectly apt. One of the best sporting documentaries I’ve seen.
For further reading, I’d also recommend this fantastic article at Little White Lies Mental health and masculinity at the movies. There’s a few ‘spoilers’ (as much as you can spoil a documentary) but it's a far deeper discussion of the subject matter than I can manage.
Tags: blog, film, action, 2024
Author: KickingK
Date: Friday May 03rd, 2024
And Godzoooooky
This movie has literally everything I think of when I think of a Godzilla movie.
- Hammy acting
- Ensemble cast
- Main character with a tragic past looking for redemption
- Spectacular special effects
- Themes and metaphors
- Terrible special effects
It’s the themes part of that list that really stand out in Godzilla-1. PTSD, grief, survivors guilt, feeling betrayed by your own country, finding hope and family in the rubble of defeat. All of these, and probably a few more that I missed, are woven into the plot with great effect.
Admittedly, none of it is subtle and the script spells everything out for you like it’s teaching each concept to a small child. But that never stops it from being effective and frequently quite moving.
The Oscar winning special effects are superb. They manage to be both an homage to the original movies as well as being a modern special effects extravaganza. The scenes of Godzilla stomping around Ginza have this weird quality where the fidelity of the cgi, combined with the old-school monster design, make it look like a giant man in a rubber suit is actually flattening a city. It’s genius and goofy at the same time and I loved it.
The direction has an old-school feel to it as well. Shots are held for far longer than we’re used to in American movies, especially in action scenes. This results in a gradual building of tension and a feeling of reverence towards Godzilla. You feel like the film makers really want to do justice to the big-G and wanted the camera to linger on him long enough to appreciate just how great he is. Admittedly, it doesn’t generate the sense of thunder-struck awe that Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla managed but it comes surprisingly close.
Literally everything you could want in a monster movie.
Tags: blog, film, thriller, 2024, essential
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday April 28th, 2024
Most disturbing hair piece since Anton Chigurh
Oh, this is absolutely blistering. A tale of love, lust, domestic violence, revenge, steroid abuse and family legacies.
There’s a whole load of things going on here with the film knowing exactly where the lines are between comedy, horror, erotica, tension and thrills, and knows exactly how to dance around them. The level of control the director, Rose Glass, has over both the story and the audience is magnificent. By the end of the film you feel like your emotions and expectations are being played with like a cat teasing a mouse. And. It. Is. Great.
There’s Cronenberg-ian body horror, toxic masculinity satire, some genuine shocks, a little slapstick comedy, an ever escalating, ratcheting tension, terrific cinematography and Ed Harris’ hair.
Something this versatile shouldn’t be this focused or this good. But it is and it’s an absolute blast.
Tags: blog, tv, animation, sci-fi, 2024, essential
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday April 25th, 2024
Stranger, Wilder Things
A standard way to start a review like this would be to give an overview of the main characters and the start of the story. But the characters who find themselves crash landed on an alien planet aren’t really the protagonists and it’s not their story.
The star here is the planet itself and the ecosystem that exists on it. The story is one of billions of years of evolution and adaptation. The ecology here is wild and fantastical. Some things are seen in the context of a co-dependant ecosystem. Others are presented completely devoid of context or explanation, with no clue as to whether it’s a once-in-a-millennia moment or an every day occurrence. The planets complete indifference to the characters who are journeying through it is both terrifying and awe inspiring.
Terrifyingly, the only thing on the planet that really pays attention to them sees them as a resource to be exploited. 1
That’s not to say that there’s nothing to the character’s stories. Whilst the beauty of the alien world is incredible, it’s the beating hearts of the humans that drive us through it and allow us to experience it alongside them. Whilst the animation is the showstopper, it’s the warmth of the story that’ll get you to binge watch it in a few evenings.
Unique and essential viewing.
1. Whilst the humans only want to survive and get off the planet, the only alien that is interested in them is driven by traditional human motivations of exploitation and greed ↩
Tags: blog, film, comedy, 2024, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday April 18th, 2024
Elmer Fudd: The Movie
What do you do when you desperately want to make a classic era Warner Brothers cartoon but haven’t got the budget for all that expensive animation? Well, if you’re Mike Cheslik the answer is to get a bunch of guys to don animal costumes and then make a black and white silent film.
It wears its influences on its sleeve, taking inspiration from Looney Tunes, Chaplin and more recent fare from Pixar and Aardman. And tries to do all that on a clearly minuscule budget. Crucially, it absolutely succeeds.
It’s slapstick and sight gags are consistently funny. It’s endlessly imaginative, throwing new ideas at the screen every few minutes, each more outrageous than the last.
Which, sadly, proves to be the films flaw. It’s too long, too stuffed with ideas to hold your interest over an hour and three quarters. Classic Looney Tunes worked because they stuffed all their ideas into a short, violent burst of mayhem. Pixar sustain interest through emotional investment. Aardman have amazing animation and an ability to pack in jokes at an absurd rate.
Hundreds of Beavers doesn’t quite match up to any of those and I was ready for the film to end a good twenty minutes before it actually did.
Still, it seems churlish to moan at a film for trying to give you too much. This is exactly the movie the film makers wanted to make and I really can’t applaud them enough for doing so.
Tags: blog, tv, comedy, 2024, essential
Author: KickingK
Date: Monday April 15th, 2024
Peak Minty
Whisper it: I think this is the funniest thing on iPlayer.
Diane Morgan has taken the essence of the 80's British sitcom, it's idiotic main characters, it's absurdly contrived plots, it's mixture of utter banality and occasional surrealism. She's jettisoned all of the set-up, all of the fluff and filler, anything that isn't generating a laugh every few seconds. And she's ended up with a fifteen minute show that's a rocket fuelled gem.
She's improved upon her influences in just about every way. Let's start with the main character, Mandy.
Each episode see's Mandy Carter trying her hand at a new job, usually at the behest of her exasperated Job Seeker's officer. And each episode it goes disastrously wrong. But not because Mandy's stupid or clumsy. It's usually because she's just bored (something we can all relate to at work) or distracted. Sometimes it's because she's actually hyper-competent and ends up taking things too far.
Because Morgan clearly loves Mandy. Mandy isn't an object of scorn or ridicule. We laugh at her, yes, but it's always with affection. Mandy is, in a very bizarre way, somebody to be admired.
Then there's the celebrity cameos. A combination of Morgan's eye for casting and the fact that each episode is so brief means that there's an avalanche of celebrities of all stripes prepared to give up a day (probably significantly less) for filming, all looking like they're having the time of their lives.
And each one is a surprise. Either because the cameo is deliciously played against type (Sonia-from-Eastenders channeling her inner Don Logan from Sexy Beast is an absolute treat) or because the setup is so misdirected and obfuscated that the punchline is glorious.
And finally there's the surrealism. The sheer pace of the jokes and inventiveness leaves no place for something as boring as reality. If it's funny: it's in. So even though the form of the jokes feel familiar, the way each joke jackknifes the plot further away from mundanity makes everything a surprise.
Just glorious, an absolute gem.
Oh Mandy, you came and you gave without taking...
Tags: blog, film, comedy, drama, 2024
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday April 14th, 2024
Julian Dennison elevates a very slight affair.
I find it difficult to offer much analysis on this as I found it to be quite lightweight in a lot of ways.
The subject matter kind of implies that this should be hard hitting, a moving account of New Zealand society’s endemic racism to Maori people. And whilst this is portrayed, it’s mostly as background and context for Josh’s (played by Julian Dennison) coming-of-age story. It never goes as deep or as in depth as you want it to.
On the positive side, focusing almost completely on Josh means that you get to see how this affects him as a person, which is what the film is more interested in. It helps that Julian gets a chance to show that Hunt for the Wilderpeople wasn’t a fluke. He’s absolutely pitch perfect in every scene. Only overacting in the moments where he’s supposed to be overacting as his character fumbles his way to becoming a thespian. The rest of the cast are on fine form as well.
It also features the first time that I, in my ignorance, have seen the Haka performed in a context that wasn’t sporting or ceremonial. It is absolutely electric and the highlight of the entire film. A spine-tingling scene that’ll stay with me for a long time.
Tags: blog, film, action, 2024, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Friday April 12th, 2024
Monkey Nuts
I don’t think I’ve read a single preview or review to this film that hasn’t mentioned The Raid. So let’s say this right from the start: this isn’t The Raid. It’s not as exciting and the fight scenes aren’t in the same league.
Having got that out the way, this is really impressive, imaginative stuff from Dev Patel.
It’s rare that action movies are overtly, consciously political. But Monkey Man is that rare beast. The story starts as a simple revenge story, but as Dev’s protagonist gradually and literally works his way up the Indian class/caste system he’s contextualised as a warrior for an entire underclass. This could end up being glib or trite, but the film commits to its politics as whole heartedly as it does to the violence. With its whole chest.
The use of music is absolutely superb, the soundtrack is practically a character in the movie. Its inventive, involving and, in one absolutely extraordinary fight scene, completely overwhelming.
So it’s not The Raid, it’s something very different and very much its own thing. More of this please.
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday April 11th, 2024
Dick Turpin and His Essex Gang
Over the last ten years or so, sit-coms seem to have gradually shifted in tone. Less snark, less sarcasm, less satire. More inclusive, more diverse, more hopeful. It's not just that the news is so relentlessly grim that people want something to take their minds off it. It's also the fact that the news is so utterly stupid that it's impossible to satirise, so completely shameless in its stupidity that even if you did there would be no point.
And whilst I loved the snark, sarcasm and satire of the comedies of my youth. A combination of wearied age and experience means that I'm very much enjoying this new inclusivity, diversity and hope.
The latest sit-com to push those qualities to the fore is Noel Fielding's Dick Turpin, which is amiable and good natured to a fault. It's border-line 18th Century Ted Lasso.
Dick wants to be a famous highway man but also wants to be good and kind. Much of the comedy comes from this incongruity. His crew want to be a team of tough criminals, but they also want to be themselves. Even more comedy from this. It's often delightful, occasionally laugh out loud funny.
There's a couple of stand out performances: Hugh Bonneville is in cracking form, and Kiri Flaherty is a delight as Little Karen.
Only Connor Swindells disappoints as Tommy Silversides and that's only because his character is so clearly inspired by Lord Flashheart that it's impossible to avoid the comparison. And comparison to Rick Mayall is never going to end well.
So it's not Blackadder. It is however, very much Maid Marion and Her Merry Men. Which either means my initial observation about the changing tone of sit-coms was wildly incorrect. Or Maid Marion... was massively ahead of its time.
Tags: blog, film, thriller, 2024
Author: KickingK
Date: Wednesday April 10th, 2024
Sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes
The ever excellent Thomasin McKenzie plays a mousy, plain young woman in 1960’s Massachusetts, working in a prison for young offenders. She gradually becomes obsessed with the prison’s glamorous new doctor, the occasionally excellent Anne Hathaway.
As we were talking about plot twists last time, this one has an absolute belter. A proper eyes-wider-sit-back-in-your-seat-mouth-agog sideswipe.
Unfortunately, the script can’t quite tie anything together after that. Everything feels a little off and the ending is deeply unsatisfactory.
It’s a shame as the film as a whole is thoroughly enjoyable. Both leads are superb, the period details are excellent (it wrings a lot out of ‘smoking in inappropriate moments’) and the script trusts the audience enough to ask their own questions in order to build the tension. I really wanted everything to add up to more.
Tags: film, blog, comedy, 2024, essential
Author: KickingK
Date: Tuesday April 09th, 2024
Turns out that "Borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered '80s" is great, actually
Lisa is a misunderstood, lonely teenager. Her dad doesn't understand her, her cheerleading step-sister doesn't understand her and mental health nurse step mum positively hates her. She spends her free time in a decrepit grave yard talking to the gravestone of a dead poet, whose zombified body she inadvertently resurrects.
Cue journey of self discovery as she tries to hide, fix and date her hot zombie poet boyfriend. The problem being that what Lisa discovers about herself is that she's an absolute dick.
And this is what makes this film an absolute riot. Whilst Lisa is always entirely relatable (all of us were a this self obsessed at one point in our teenage years), watching her gradually embrace her new found self confidence to the point of serial murderer is glorious.
A Diablo Cody script being sharp, warm, funny and insightful is hardly a surprise. But Zelda Williams 80's-to-the-Max aesthetic really is. It's not nostalgic as she doesn't remember the eighties. Instead, she leans into the idea that this is an eighties teen comedy made by someone who's never experienced the actual eighties and instead has pieced together what it was like from pop-culture. It's familiar but new and I loved it.
One of the films of the year for me, an absolute belter.
Author: KickingK
Date: Tuesday April 09th, 2024
A very able Caine
I won’t do many puns, I promise.
I’ve not read the book, been to the play or watched the ’50s version of this so I can’t speak to how successful an adaptation this is. Nor how well it compares to them. This is a cracking good time in its own right though. The script cracks along with no flab, and has enough meat on it to allow the actors to really get their teeth into it.
Everybody does a great job looking like they’re only just managing to keep their emotions in check. None more so than Monica Raymund, whose repeatedly overruled Prosecutor looks like she’s going to literally explode, whilst barely moving a muscle.
This is a lot of fun while it lasts, but the twist didn’t really land for me and I don’t think it’ll leave a lasting impression.
Tags: blog, film, drama, documentary, 2024, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Monday April 08th, 2024
Ava DuVernay in magnificent form adapting a work of non-fiction.
Based on the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson, Ava DuVernay has taken a highly imaginative and passion fuelled approach to its adaptation. Instead of a straight forward documentary we have a story built around Wilkerson’s process for writing the book. The books central arguments explained through conversations with people, both in her personal life and academics she meets through her research.
Then, peppered throughout this narrative, are dramatisations of events from some of the key research texts she uses to pull together her thesis.
The decision DuVernay is making here is to replace the logic and facts that books can densely pack in with the emotive force that films can provide. Scenes from America’s history of slavery are woven together with scene’s from Nazi Germany, and later India, that don’t so much argue that they’re from the same connective tissue but make you feel this truth.
We’ve all lost count of the number of dramatisations of Nazi Germany that we’ve seen on screen. But rarely do these scenes drip with so much disdain and disgust as they do in DuVernay’s work here. The brief scenes on a slave ship are nightmare fuel. If DuVernay ever decides to turn her hand to making horror movies we are all in trouble.
If I can nit-pick slightly, out of all the areas that the film deals with, India is the one I’m least familiar with and it’s also the area the film spends the least time with. I wanted to learn more. And I also wanted to learn more about why this system exists, who benefits from it and why it persists.
But then I suppose I can go and read the book for that.
Ultimately this is a profoundly moving, human and even hopeful film. Masterful stuff.
Tags: blog, film, thriller, 2024
Author: KickingK
Date: Sunday April 07th, 2024
Classy, comic heist movie
Abel, mourning the loss of his wife, can’t bring himself to welcome his mother’s new husband, freshly released from jail, into his life. Convinced he hasn’t renounced his criminal past Abel sets out, with the aid of his wife’s best friend, to find out the truth. Setting in motion a bizarre chain of events that could have dire consequences for everyone.
This is a bit of a delight. Frothy, funny and heartfelt, the whole thing zips along at pace. Every character is engaging and likeable, even when they’re being arseholes.
The heist, which the entire film is built around, is brilliant and (a rare thing for the heist movie genre) moving.
A lot of fun.
Poster Credit Where to Watch
Tags: blog, film, thriller, 2024, essential
Author: KickingK
Date: Saturday April 06th, 2024
Lean, mean and electrifying
A violent homophobic assault leaves Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) traumatised. Only for a chance encounter that reveals that his attacker, Preston (George MacKay), is a closeted gay and leads him to plot his revenge.
Clocking in at just a smidge over ninety minutes, this electric little thriller doesn’t waste a single second of its run time. The tension starts to crackle within the first few minutes and refuses to abate until the credits roll.
Oddly enough, it reminds me a lot of the Michael Caine/Laurence Olivier film Clue 1. But where that film’s plot twists and role plays were the result of devious plotting, here it’s down to the shifting sands of the emotional state of the characters.
Perspectives change and turn as the characters learn and grow, leading to a sense that you can never quite put your finger on what, exactly, is happening and where it’s going to go.
Absolutely top draw stuff. Film of the year.
1. They are not similar films, this is just how my brain works sometimes) ↩
Tags: blog, film, comedy, drama, 2024, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Friday April 05th, 2024
Marissa Tomei is a tugboat captain
I’d much rather a film shoot for greatness and not achieve it, have eyes bigger than it’s belly. I’d rather watch something that reaches for the stars and falls short than something that has no interest in the stars at all.
Having said that, if you are going to do something slight and charming, do it like She Came to Me.
Peter Dinklage plays an opera composer suffering from writers block and whose marriage to Anne Hathaway may be on the rocks. A one afternoon stand with tugboat captain Marisa Tomei unlocks his creative process and gives everyone a lot more than he bargained for.
Everything about this film oozes effortless charm, humour and wit. I laughed the whole way through and enjoyed my time with the characters to the point I cared about them a lot. Even if the plot is light and more than a little contrived.
And Marisa Tomei is a tugboat captain. Wonderful.
Author: KickingK
Date: Thursday April 04th, 2024
Less than the sum of it’s magnificent parts
I won’t describe the plot here, this is more of a tonal piece, a meditation on loss, longing and what might have been.
There really isn’t any part of this film that I can criticise. Everything from the music, cinematography, script and acting are superb. Jamie Bell and Claire Foy in particular are both pitch perfect.
And yet it didn’t add up to anything for me. I kept thinking of other films that dealt with similar themes and felt this came up short in comparison. Aftersun dealt with loss and grief far better. And Skeletons was better at evoking that feeling of warmth that comes from dwelling on a nostalgic past.
The best thing I can say about this film is that it felt incredibly personal. Like the writer/director Andrew Haigh (who made the superb Lean on Pete) made exactly the film he wanted to make. Which is enough of a recommendation I think.
But sadly, it didn’t speak to me at all.
Tags: blog, film, drama, 2024, recommended
Author: KickingK
Date: Wednesday April 03rd, 2024
Something of a magic trick, this one.
An entirely fictional story, based on the life of artist Audrey Amiss, played here by the ever brilliant Monica Dolan. Kelly Macdonald (also brilliant) plays her psychiatric nurse who ends up being brow beaten/suckered into taking Audrey across country to enter her work into an exhibition.
It’s a fantastically well done odd-couple, road trip movie that hits all the right comedy and pathos beats that you expect of this kind of story. And does so with aplomb and some degree of gusto.
Except that’s a sleight of hand. Because the story building in the background is one of an extraordinarily talented artist whose life was ruined by poor mental health and societies attitudes towards it.
The uplifting, feel good film promised by the trailer is absolutely delivered. And yet I finished the film profoundly upset, even angry at the great injustice done to Audrey. Hell, even a little bit of guilt… I wouldn’t be watching a film about her life if she’d received the recognition she deserved in her lifetime.
Is she being defined more by her battles with her mental health than her talents as an artist? The film shows enough of her wonderful art to balance the story and allows you to feel your own conclusions.
Tags: blog, film, comedy, 2024
Author: KickingK
Date: Tuesday April 02nd, 2024
Michael Jai White takes the Black Dynamite formula way out west.
Bit of an odd one as the dramatic elements are good enough to stand on their own two feet without the comedy. And the comedy is good enough to not need the well thought out story.
So it ends up with the jokes being too spaced out to be truly riotous, and the drama never quite builds up enough momentum to properly excite. And the representation of Native Americans is awful, just awful.
That said, it is funny and the plot is engaging, so it works none the less.
Special props go to Erica Ash who steals every scene she's in. One of the best film comedy performances I've seen for a while.
Tags: blog, film, animation, drama, 2024, essential
Author: KickingK
Date: Monday April 01st, 2024
A lonely dog builds a robot to be his best friend
A beautiful movie that never goes where you expect it to. The animation is clean, un-showy and yet packed with detail and imagination. The story matches it precisely, characters are clearly defined, their motivations always explained plainly through the story.
And yet, it has no easy answers to the questions it poses. I was left with an ache in my heart, unsure just how happy the ending I’d just witnessed really was.
Funny, poignant and wonderful.