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: 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, 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: 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.
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: 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.
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.
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, 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, 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, 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.
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.
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.
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, 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, 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.