It Follows Review

Hello :-)

If you’ve read any of my Horror reviews before you’ll know I have a history of actively avoiding the genre until recently when I decided to rehabilitate myself and get on board with scary films. This has proved an excellent decision and I’ve seen a whole load of great stuff I otherwise wouldn’t have, most recently I went to see low budget Horror flick It Follows.

Jay is a 19 year old girl dating the seemingly lovely Hugh. They have what she believes to be an innocent sexual encounter, but afterwards she seems to hallucinate figures walking towards her and can’t shake the feeling that something is out to get her. With the help of her friends Jay tries to get to the bottom of these strange visions and avoid becoming its next victim.

Anyone that’s been on Facebook, owned a mobile phone or had an e-mail address has probably seen a chain message of some kind. They usually tell some kind of horrific story and then end by saying “if you don’t forward this message to 10 people the same fate will befall you!” This is the concept behind It Follows and the results are scarier than you’d think.

It Follows revels in suburban gothic imagery, using Detroit’s indigenous dilapidated buildings to great effect. The result is a striking mix of decaying infrastructure, and the unnerving leafy quiet of residential purlieu that really puts the audience on edge. The camera work further aids the atmosphere with the inclusion of a number of 360° pans that whip round just fast enough to make you question everything you see.

In order to set themselves apart from the crowd, the subversion and omission of genre tropes has become a necessity for Horror film makers recently. Happily, It Follows does both by simultaneously proving and disproving Randy Meeks’ theory that sex in Horror films is fatal. It’s a nice twist on an old trope and it’ll stay with you well after the scares have gone.

Having said that It Follows doesn’t rub it’s meta in your face. It’s a genre-literate film and, whilst the sexual spectre (or randy revenant, whichever you prefer) is refreshingly original, it has a definite lineage behind it. David Robert Mitchell is a Director who wears his influences on his sleeve and this film positively reeks of John Carpenter. The music, the shot composition, the growing sense of dread, the slow, linear momentum of the villain.  Carpenter has proved to be a huge influence on a number of filmmakers recently and I for one, wholeheartedly encourage this.


Maika Monroe is a stand out in a film from a genre not usually know for the quality of it's performances. She's sympathetic and stays on the side of distressed damsel rather than crossing over into being the maker of moronic decisions. The rest of the cast don't quite match her levels of nuance but none of them are irritating enough for the audience to wish them into cannon fodder.

There’s a lovely nod to 1942’s Cat People as the film gathers momentum towards the finish line, but things come to a crashing halt when an almost entirely unexplained final show down punctures the carefully constructed atmosphere. It Follows ends on a high with an utterly superb parting shot but it’s hard not to feel let down by a film that does brilliantly for three quarters of its run time but messes up its grand finale.

It Follows is probably one of the most interesting cinematic conversations about sex in recent years. The sub-textual discussion of the way youth imagines sex is fascinating but it’s packaged in such a way that you’ll be jumping out your seat and checking over your shoulder for the promiscuous poltergeist all the way home. It’s not as ground breaking as some would have you believe but what it is, is really good.

Ok, let’s have some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

1. It’s been out for a little while now but there’s a teaser trailer for the new Fantastic Four film. Fantastic Four (or FantFourStic as I’m petulantly calling it) is an interesting one because it’s pretty much been deemed a lost cause already. After seeing the trailer though, I’m not so sure it should be. My ever-increasing crush on Miles Teller aside, I really think we should go into this one with an open mind.

The cast look great, they all have good track records, Josh Trank is an interesting,  young talent (in spite of the found-footage tag the relationships in Chronicle are one of its best assets) and nothing in this teaser gives us cause for alarm. I mean it’s not as if the existing films are masterpieces, let’s give it a chance :-)

2. You may or may not be aware that I’m a daughter of the Midlands and the lack of midlands based media is a constant thorn in my side. Enter my hero Caitlin Moran and her sister Caz who have put their heads together and penned Raised By Wolves, a Channel 4 show about girls from a poor family growing up in Wolverhampton. Needless to say it’s utterly brilliant. The first episode aired on Monday so if you missed it catch up on 4OD.

That’s it for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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P.S I’ve managed to sneak some of my ramblings on to Den of Geek again. This time I’ve been complaining about people telling me I can’t complain about things :-)

Kingsman: The Secret Service Review

Hello :-)

Spy films are a rather interesting breed. You’ve got your classics like The Ipcress File and North by Northwest then more modern fare like the Bourne Series, The Mission Impossible movies and finally the decades spanning stalwart of the Bond films. The latter in particular, is taken to task in the latest genre pastiche from Matthew Vaughn, Kingsman: The Secret Service (or just Kingsman because I’m lazy).

Kingsman follows Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton), an underachiever who is wasting his vast potential on a life of crime. Eggsy is selected by Harry Hart aka Galahad (Colin Firth) to undergo a training programme to select the newest member of the Kingsmen, a British secret service who work independently of the government.

Meanwhile, the Kingsmen are investigating Internet billionaire Richmond Valentine, who has announced a world-wide giveaway of SIM cards that allow free phone calls and internet access. The Kingsmen suspect him of being involved in a number of disappearances of the rich, famous and influential, a case that Harry goes to investigate.

Just to set my stall out early, I totally loved this film. It takes the same sense of fun, charm and batshit craziness that made Kick Ass such a breath of fresh air and applies it effortlessly to the spy genre.

Kingsman is another adaptation from Vaughn of a Comic by Mark Millar and, as hesitant as I am to suggest that creatives should find a niche and stick to it, I would be perfectly happy if Vaughn and Millar kept this co-creative relationship for the rest of their careers. Millar’s stories seem to lend themselves perfectly to Vaughns genre bending tendencies and in turn, Vaughn is excellent at turning Millar’s comics into a cinematic experience.

This is definitely Vaughn’s vision and what a wonderfully violent, deliciously witty vision it is. It plays a little bit like a Matthew Vaughn greatest hits: it’s got the East End-eyness of Layer Cake, the mansion based training montage from X-Men: First Class, and ballsy violence we’ve seen from Kick Ass. Whilst this is all present and correct it’s remarkable how new those elements feel when you apply them to a spy movie making Kingsman simultaneously familiar and fresh.

The cast are excellent and really commit to Kingsman’s ‘dialled up to 11’ vibe. Colin Firth’s gentlemanly shtick fits perfectly in the world of Kingsman. He’s as reliable a screen presence as he ever was, slipping seamlessly from suave to sweary to lethal killing machine. Also enjoyable are Mark Strong as Merlin head of intelligence and training at Kingsman, Michael Caine as Arthur/Chester King (in a nod to the aforementioned The Ipcress File) and newcomer Sophie Cookson as fellow recruit Roxy. I feel a mention should also go to Jack Davenport who, for my money, is not in enough things, especially here…

Samuel L. Jackson’s Richmond Valentine is pretty enjoyable. Aside from the fact it’s Samuel L. Jackson doing Samuel L. Jackson, it’s a nice performance albeit with an occasionally distracting lisp. He hits an interesting balance between new money seeking acceptance from old money and full on cackling bay guy.

However, Taron Egerton’s Eggsy is the films focal point and a bang up job he does too. As an actor he seems to have that rare, universally likable appeal that, coupled with a flair for on screen action and a clear confidence in his craft, makes him eminently watchable. I’m hoping for big things from him in the future.

The film has had some criticism lobbied at it for a questionable joke about anal sex towards the end of the film. I can see what they were trying to do, but instead as coming off as a subversion of the double entendres synonymous with the Bond franchise it feels jarring and a tad inappropriate. That said, when a film delivers as much as this, a minor lapse of judgement is easily forgiven.

As with Vaughn’s previous films, Kingsman works because although it serves to send up the genre, at its heart lies a great affection for spy films. Boasting a game cast, plentiful gags and gloriously OTT action, Kingsman can talk the talk and walk the Oxford-clad walk.  

Kingsman: The Secret Service is in cinemas now.

Let’s have a look at some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

1. So, unless you’ve been living on the Moon it can’t have escaped you attention that Sony and Marvel have reached an agreement to work together on future Spider-man ventures. What we know is that a new Spider-Man will be introduced in an unspecified MCU movie before 2017 (the smart money seems to be on Captain America: Civil War). Then, after 2017, Sony will release the next instalment in its own Spider-Man series using the same actor.

I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say that this news has been universally well received. I’m sad that Andrew Garfield has been caught in the crossfire of all this, I’ve never made any bones about that fact that I prefer him to Tobey Maguire, but he’s a brilliant actor I’m sure he won’t be unemployed for too long. Aside from that every other outcome from this has the potential to be brilliant. Exciting times for Spidey fans:-)

That’s all for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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Selma Review

Hello :-)

Another awards season, another few months of people saying that the Oscars don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. At best the Academy are accused of being a bit elitist, at worse downright racist and at the centre of this year’s argument is the exclusion of David Oyelowo from the Best Actor category for his performance in Selma.

Selma is a dramatic retelling of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches as part of the civil rights movement. Following a meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson ) in which he is denied his request for federal legislation around the voting rights of black citizens, Martin Luther King Jr (David Oyelowo) heads to Selma with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to stage a number of peaceful protests and marches to help bring about change.

To add my 10 pence worth to the ongoing Oscars argument, I think it’s a crying shame that David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay aren’t getting recognition from the Academy. Selma is a great piece of work in which they are the lynchpins.

What I found most surprising is the focus on the tactics behind the cause and the ever-present politics. In one scene movement’s organisers try to drill down into the core of the problem of voting for black residents of Selma. It’s rare to find something that dissects big problems in that way rather than just pointing at it and telling you how horrible it is. Those scenes also underline exactly how many levels of bullshit these people had to deal with which I hope younger audiences find as illuminating as I did.

So much of Selma is tied up in David Oyelowo’s remarkable performance it’s almost impossible to try and imagine the film without him. Instead of presenting us with a flawless image of an icon, Oyelowo shows us the man behind the mythos. In Selma King is flawed, plagued by doubt and fatigue but still understands the gravity of the cause and his pivitol role within it. He inhabits the character rather than giving an  impersonation; in particular the tone and cadence of his voice is hypnotic.

King may be front and centre of the action but Selma is an ensemble story and the cast of characters around Oyelowo acquit themselves very well. Carmen Ejogo shines as Coretta Scott King. She imbues her character with such grace and strength but also the duality of her relationship with her husband, both understanding the importance of his work and resentful of his unfaithfulness and time away from his family. Trai Byers and Stephan James play the SNCC members James Forman and John Lewis who raise some interesting questions on the merits of grassroots activism versus wider media attention. There are many more excellent supporting performances but it’d be impossible to put it into a coherent review without it turning into an IMDB cast list.

Other cast members, I’m not so sold on. Tom Wilkinson’s LBJ never really convinces, neither do Tim Roth as Governor George Wallace or Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover. Roth plays Wallace like a 1920’s moustache twirling villain rather than a convincing bigot and the conversation between LBJ and Hoover about plans to set surveillance on King and his family comes off as cringey rather than ominous. 

Ava DuVernay shows some real talent here, the scene with the initial march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge is nothing short of masterful and she injects some real fire into the speech scenes which, in lesser hands, could have come off as a bit po-faced. Her obvious confidence underpins the whole picture which is something you really need if you’re taking on a subject as emotionally loaded as the civil rights movement.

As uplifting as this story is there is an overarching feeling of melancholy when you put it in a present day context. I defy anyone not to watch this and think of the recent unrest in Ferguson (something that’s referenced in Selma’s Oscar nominated song Glory) and that’s one of the film’s biggest strengths. It doesn’t shy away from reminding us “of the fierce urgency of Now”.

It would take a cold soul to watch Selma and not be moved. It takes us into the nitty gritty of affecting change and the brutal treatment of those who tried. Despite some forgivable flaws the film is gracefully aided by the strength of it’s central performance and sterling direction throughout.  Timely and timeless, Selma is essential viewing.

Selma is out in the UK this Friday.

Right, let’s have some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

Superbowl Trailer Special! (FYI there were LOADS of trailers from the recent Superbowl, there are just my favourite)

1. Tomorrowland, got a new trailer, a whole 32 seconds of it… It looks fantastically crackers and interestingly, we still don’t know that much about the actual story. Eevn so, I’m willing to give anything a chance if it’s come from the creator of The Iron Giant.  Tomorrowland comes out on 22^nd May :-)

2. There was a new trailer for Jurassic World! I’m so looking forward to this, I know it has it’s detractors and they have perfectly valid reasons for their skeptisism but the sight of Chris Pratt training Velociraptors (something we all suspected but this trailer seems to confirm) is just ridiculously exciting to me.  The park will open on 12^th June :-)

3. And finally there was a trailer for Pitch Perfect 2! I went through a phase of watching Pitch Perfect once a week so you’d be correct in assuming I was excited about it’s sequel. Pitch Perfect 2 is out on 15^th May.

That’s all for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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Boyhood Review

Hello :-)

I missed Boyhood in cinemas last July but with it’s raft of award nominations it’s back in cinemas riding a wave of publicity. I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

Boyhood documents the life of Mason Evans Jr between the ages of six and eighteen. That’s it, that’s literally it.

Obviously summing this film up in one sentence does it a massive disservice because whilst the premise is painfully simple the execution is superb. It’s a beautiful exploration of youth in America during the ‘noughties’ and a broader look at the ebb and flow of time.

It’s well documented that the fact this film exists is remarkable. The idea that something would be filmed over 12 years with the same cast opens this enterprise up to so much uncertainty. With a studio system that favours safe bets and calculated risks it’s nothing short of a miracle that Boyhood got made at all.

So much of traditional modern cinema relies on narrative and characters arcs it’s easy to see why some might find it hard to connect with Boyhood. There’s no huge conflict in the film, no overarching villain and no great epiphany, just a maturity and warmth that unfolds across the 2 hour 45 minute run time. Linklater abandons the traditional methods of story telling, even more so than in his Before trilogy, instead favouring an approach of realism and truth.

The approach to scripting is something else that helps give Boyhood this air of honesty. Still written in his breezy conversational style, Linklater outlined the story at the beginning of production but during the process of filming, gave the cast and crew the opportunity to contribute their experiences. This helps create a series of events that feels believable but still engaging. A particular favourite is the conversation Mason and his Dad have about elves. It’s adorable and rings totally true with the way children question the world around them.

The focus of each year could so easily have been social milestones (Birthdays, Christmases, etc) but instead Linklater opts for more subtle and ultimately truthful ways to show the passage of time. Think back on your childhood and you don’t remember great swathes of detail, events tend to morph together but odd moments you can recall with great clarity. Specific gigs, days at your first job, evenings mucking about with your friends, each moment blending with the ones either side of it. There’s a reference to Kurt Vonnegut in the film which is has got to be intentional because it fits so perfectly with the tone of the film. When you look back at Boyhood once it’s finished there is a sense of everything happening all at once, like the way the Tralfamadorians see the world in the novel Slaughterhouse 5.

Patricia Arquette does a sterling job as Olivia, Mason’s Mother (simply credited as ‘Mom’). This film could have been called ‘Parenthood’ because for a large part of it, it’s about how Mason interacts with her and reacts to her string of ill-chosen relationships. Arquette is utterly heart-breaking throughout; you’ll come out of Boyhood wanting to give her a hug.

Frequent Linklater collaborator Ethan Hawke plays Mason Sr. Initially a less steady influence than Olivia, Mason Sr could so easily have been a source of ‘Daddy Issues’ for Mason Jr but Linklater goes for a more nuanced approach to paternity. Mason Sr matures as much as his junior counterpart delivering an interesting insight into our parents and how they change as a result of parenthood.

Ellar Coltrane is a great anchor for the film. From his introduction as a cherubic 6 year old he proves eminently watchable. Mason does become more complicated and potentially unlikable as the film goes on but I’d argue that his likability doesn’t matter and that what the film is really about is how he becomes that version of himself. Incidentally I did like him. By the time he’s 16 he’s the kind of introspective, pseudointellectual, borderline conspiracy theorist that I used to fall madly in love with at that age and seeing that just added to the huge hit of nostalgia this film provides.

I don’t think Boyhood is perfect. It’s about 10 minutes too long and one minor plot point comes back at the end of the film in a rather clunky, albeit effective, way. But as ever, I’m willing to forgive these kinds of minor indiscretions for something like Boyhood that aspires to be more than the usual Hollywood fare.

Ultimately the beauty of Boyhood is that you can read it in so many different ways. You can see it as a young adult looking back on their childhood or as a time capsule documenting those 12 years through the filter of a childhood in the American South or you could even view it as a parent, reflecting on how quickly your children grow up.

I’m sorry if this review comes off as pretentious waffle, the film definitely isn’t high falutin it’s just highly unconventional. If you didn’t like the free flow of the Before trilogy you might get equally annoyed with Boyhood, but if you’re able to go with it, this film will reward you with an experience that you’ve never had before and are unlikely to have again

Boyhood is the event of youth the way that youth remembers it. With a lightness of touch and an acute sense of humanity Linklater invites us to witness, recall and reflect on the process of growing up in all its sublime subtlety.

Boyhood is back in cinemas for awards season and is also available to buy on DVD, Blu Ray and download.

Also, if you fancy reading my review of another awards contender, Whiplash, it’s over at the awesome Den of Geek where I’ll occasionally be cropping up in the future :-)

That’s all for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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Big Hero 6 Review

Hello :-)

Few would deny that Superhero films are the hottest properties at the minute. With the unprecedented success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and seemingly constant casting announcements and release schedules coming from their rivals at DC, it’s a great time to be a fan of the Superhero. Disney Animation Studios are the most recent outfit to jump on this trend with Big Hero 6 an animation very loosely based on a comic of the same name.

Big Hero 6 follows 14-year-old child prodigy Hiro Hamada who lives in the futuristic city of San Fransokyo. Despite his genius Hiro decides that illegal robot fighting is where his future lies until his older brother Tadashi introduces him to his college friends and shows him their robotics lab. Hiro sets his heart on joining them and creates a swarm of mini robots called ‘microbots’ to impress the college. After a tragic accident Hiro discovers his microbots have been stolen by a villainous figure in a kabuki mask so he sets about finding the truth with the help of Baymax, a heath care robot invented by his brother.

Big Hero 6 is a totally immersive delight of a film. Everything looks gorgeous, the characters are great and it’s a lovely, fun place to spend your time.

The story is a tad predictable but it’s nicely realised. There’s an obvious comparison with The Avengers and also a touch of old school Scooby Do but it’s done with such enthusiasm it’s easy to look past some of the slightly hackneyed ideas.

Disney has become synonymous over the years with familial loss but it’s never delved into it as much as in Big Hero 6. It’s very delicately done, it might not trump the likes of Bambi or The Lion King in terms of emotionally scarring a generation but the revenge story fits well with this genuine look into death and grief.

The strength of the characters is the film’s best hand and it plays it perfectly. The additional characters GoGo, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred could have easily been side-lined but they’re more involved with the story than that and each of them is a total delight. Fred in particular is a source of a lot of laughs and a love note to comic book geeks everywhere.

Hiro is really likable despite having the potential to be an annoying brat. He’s got just the right amount of adolescent embarrassment and rebellion but also, can you remember the last children’s film you saw where one of the protagonist’s main goals was to go to college and study science? It’s not at the forefront of the drama but it’s still a lovely message to put in there.

However it’s the marshmallow-ey Baymax that will steal your heart and potentially some money from your wallet. His general cuteness and all round hug-ability goes hand in hand with some great physical comedy and full on toyetic-ness. Expect future Birthday and Christmas lists to be full of requests for Baymax goodies (mine definitely will be).

Please don’t compare Big Hero 6 to Frozen; nothing is going to come out well when you hold it up against that behemoth. Still, Big Hero 6 is a charmingly shiny romp around a rainbow coloured future that will have you hooked from the off. You’ll happily overlook a few clichéd plot points in return for some beautiful animation and a Baymax fist-bump (you will ALL be doing it on the way out the theatre). And that’s the joy of Big Hero 6, Superhero movies have never been so fun :-)

Big Hero 6 is in UK cinemas from Friday 30^th January.

Now it’s definitely time for…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

1. Speaking of Superheroes the new trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron is out and it looks excellent. In the wake of the (slightly unfair) less than enthusiastic reception of the Ant-man teaser trailer, Age of Ultron looks like a much surer bet for the MCU.

2. The Oscar nominees list is out. It’s the same as ever; some deserved nominations, some less so, some egregious oversights but more importantly the lovely Shiznit have made some more honest Oscar posters and they’re as brilliant as ever :-)

That’s it for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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