Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

Fun is not necessarily the first word that comes to mind when I think of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, ‘Boogie Nights’ notwithstanding.    But right from the outset this film signals that it is going to have a comedic or satiric edge to it, with a frankly bizarre scene between a black and fearsome freedom fighter Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) and the very white Colonel Stephen J Lockjaw (played wonderfully well by an almost unrecognisable Sean Penn), in which the latter becomes sexually aroused in a ridiculous manner which had me worried about where the film might be going tone-wise. Perfidia is in a relationship with Pat (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), both of them being members of a resistance group named the French 75.  When she  gives birth to a baby girl he naturally assumes he is the father, oblivious to the fact that she has been enjoying sexual high jinks with Lockjaw.    We then get some quickfire scenes, leading to Perfidia ratting on fellow French 75 m...

This is a slight comedy drama set in 1970 from director Kelly Reichardt about a character, JB, played by Josh O'Connor, who can best be described as a waster.   At least that's how his father, an eminent judge, sees him, lambasting JB in an early scene for not making more of himself.  JB's wife is also not a fan; she seems to have given up on him and the marriage, but staying with him  for the sake of their twin boys.   But hold on!  Maybe they (and we) have misjudged JB because it turns out that he has been quietly putting together a masterplan to steal some paintings from a local art gallery, which has required him to put in some effort casing the joint and assembling a ragtag team of ne'er-do-wells.  Needless to say the heist doesn't go smoothly (the title of the film is clearly intended to be ironic).  For starters JB has to unexpectedly look after his boys because of a teachers' work day, but despite various mishaps it seems he has got a...

Having given Pinocchio a makeover it was only natural that Guillermo del Toro would turn his attention to another classic story about a creature who wants to be human. Just how radical would del Toro's take be?  Well, for starters he completely inverts the structure of the novel, so that instead of the Creature wronging Victor, who then seeks revenge, here it is the Creature who suffers at the hands of Victor, and who then pursues him to the Arctic circle.   He wants Victor to create a companion for him (as in the novel), or if that is not possible to  find a way of killing him (the monster), because i n this version the Creature is literally indestructible and is therefore doomed to wander the earth forever in his loneliness.  Del Toro further loads the dice in favour of the Creature by making him surprisingly easy on the eye (no bolts in the neck, for example).   In contrast Victor is portrayed  as a borderline egotistical maniac who is arrogant...

Although I am as exhausted with superhero films as the next person I've always had a bit of a soft spot for these particular characters (not sure why, I was not into the Fantastic Four comics) so I paid my money and took my chances with it. Like the recent 'Superman' we skip over the origin story - here at the outset we get a very brief recap in a short montage sequence  -  they go into space, radiation changes their bodies, they come home.  Fine by me, let's get to the action!  That action takes place on Earth-828 (not ours) so that the backdrop to the story is the kind of retro futuristic world which people in the early part of the twentieth century thought the future would look like.  It's a set design I liked a lot.  Maybe it was my imagination but even the CGI special effects had a nice retro feel to them - I especially liked the look of the Human Torch and the Silver Surfer.   The casting of the Four is fine: in particular Pedro Pascal and V...

Superman is very dear to me as a character because for a few years in the mid-1960s I was heavily into the comics (as well as Batman, Justice League and The Legion of Super Heroes) - I even used to read the Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen spin-off comics. I also treasure the first two Christopher Reeve films.  And I am not a great fan of the James Gunn sensibility as manifested in 'Guardians of the Galaxy' - it seems quite glib and cheap, and I'm not convinced he can direct a dramatically powerful scene. So despite the generally positive reviews I went to see this latest iteration of the Man of Steel with some trepidation, but I'm pleased to say that, although my view of James Gunn wasn't much changed, some two-and-a-bit hours later I did walk out the cinema with a spring in my step.   And that was despite the fact that a lot of the comedy beats fell flat for me, and that I wouldn't say the film includes any memorable dramatic or exciting moments.   And the least said...

Both the writing and direction of this film are credited to Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza.  The latter is a former  U.S. Navy SEAL and the film is based on his experience of an incident du ring the Iraq War. More specifically it's about Mendoza's platoon breaking into a local house to carry out some surveillance in support of a wider military operation.  Unfortunately the house becomes a target for insurgents, and the question is whether the platoon can be rescued. The film aims for absolute realism so there's no score and events are shown in real-time.  It makes for a thoroughly gripping and tense viewing experience, and at times a terrifying one. The sense that I was watching c inéma vérité was enhanced by the fact that none of the actors were familiar to me, except for Kit Connor from the excellent Netflix series 'Heartstopper' who I somehow failed to recognise (that's military camouflage for you, I guess). As one example of how nothing here is sugar-coated t...

For anyone worried that this film might be too tense for them to enjoy I can reassure them that they'll be fine. Admittedly the setup does sound promising.  Violet is on a first date in a swanky restaurant when she starts getting orders on her phone from someone who is threatening to kill her child (and baby-sitter sister) if she doesn't follow those orders to the letter. It's done stylishly to begin with and I was certainly intrigued as to where it was heading, and how Violet would manage to follow some of the more demanding orders.  And of course I was wondering whether her date Henry was in fact not all he seemed. Eventually we learn who is behind it all, and where Henry fits in.  As often happens with an outlandish premise the resolution can be either anti-climactic or not very plausible or (as here) both. And then suddenly we are thrown into a ridiculous set of action sequences which aren't done very well, and are very much at odds with what has gone before. Ultima...

This spy thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh  has a simple and effective setup: George (Michael Fassbender) is given the job of uncovering a traitor among his colleagues, the sting in the tail being that one of the five suspects is his wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). In the first half of the film we see George spying on Kathryn, culminating in one of the best scenes, in an intelligence briefing, when George for the first time is visibly shaken - could indeed his wife be guilty of betrayal? Actually it quickly turns out that his concern is not that she is a traitor but rather that they are both being set up, so the tension that had been building around Kathryn's loyalty is dissipated, and then everything gets resolved a little too easily for my taste.   I ended up not sure what was going on in George's head.  Did he really suspect Kathryn, in which case I wasn't sure what convinced him she wasn't guilty?  Or was his trust in her rock solid throughout, in which ...