LITTLE JOE

Little Joe

DIRECTOR: JESSICA HAUSNER | SCREENPLAY: JESSICA HAUSNER, GÉRALDINE BAJARD | STARRING: EMILY BEECHAM, BEN WHISHAW, KERRY FOX, KIT CONNOR | RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 21ST

Alice is a plant breeder working on a new strain of manufactured flowers designed to create a sense of happiness and well-being in the owner if the plant is properly cared for, spoken to, and nurtured. Under pressure to have it ready for an important event, she bypasses some of the safety requirements in the plant’s genetics, and even takes one home as a gift for her son, calling the plant Little Joe in her boy’s honour. When a co-worker with a history of mental illness tries to persuade Alice that those who inhale the plant’s pollen change, becoming a kind of ‘Little Joe protection army’, Alice dismisses the claims. But she soon starts to notice subtle differences in her son’s behaviour and that of some colleagues. Has her creation mutated into something else or is it all in her mind?

In a modern take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, replacing alien invasion with themes around mental health, antidepressants, and well-being, writer-director Jessica Hausner has created a film so formally mannered in its execution and so relentlessly understated that you do at times feel you might have had an unofficial scratch and sniff of Joe’s pollen yourself just by watching it.

Long takes within sterile sets, often monotone delivery, a pace which rarely shifts, if at all – Little Joe proves that there’s a fine line between hypnotic and somnambulant. It just, and only just, stays upon the hypnotic side but you do sometimes wish that the film, in exploring its themes, allowed a little more of the explosive chaos that the plant is designed to combat into its narrative.

Only a few scenes with the ever wonderful Kerry Fox hint at that, her character’s history of mental illness cleverly used as the harbinger of doom, the apparently unstable one being the sanest person around. Elsewhere the cast do a fine job, Ben Wishaw is dependable as ever and Emily Beecham doing fine work in the lead, although her Best Actress win at Cannes is a little curious. (Perhaps the Jury had been sent some Little Joe’s of their own before they watched the film.)

So, while it’s an interesting, never boring film, its style and relentless refusal to change tone keeps you at an emotional distance throughout, making it difficult to care. You long for something explosive to happen and it doesn’t, which is surely part of the point that Hausner is making, but Little Joe is at times the cinematic equivalent of taking some heavy mood stabilisers.

BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

Harley Quinn and Joker are over, Harley announces to Gotham City with all the subtlety of an exploding chemicals factory into which one rams a stolen truck. The place where Harleen Quinzel had pledged herself to the Clown Prince of Crime, the Jester of Genocide, her darlin’ Puddin’, goes up in multicoloured flames behind her, as she picks herself up and dusts herself off.

And just like that, she has let everyone know that Harley Quinn is no longer under Joker’s protection – leading every man, woman, gang member and cop with a grievance to come out of the woodwork to claim their pound of flesh. Among them is crime boss Roman Sionis (aka Black Mask, or a phenomenal Ewan McGregor) who’s also dealing with a problem of his own in the shape of a young girl named Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), who unknowingly robbed him of a very valuable diamond.

Rather than having her face sliced off by Sionis’ right-hand, Zsasz (Chris Messina), Harley kindly offers to retrieve the stone for him. To make things a little more exciting though, Sionis places a $500,000 bounty on the young girl’s head, sending Gotham’s every mercenary, criminal and bounty hunter on Harley’s trail. It’s amidst this fantastic mess, Harley Quinn, Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Renee Montoya’s (Rosie Perez) paths collide and the newly-formed girl gang have little choice but to team up and defeat Black Mask and save Cass.

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is as anarchic, poppy, and utterly joyful as its name and plot suggest – and then some! It’s exactly what every comic book movie ought to be: gratuitous violence, rib-cracking humour, and iconic characters going full-throttle, neatly wrapped into a stylish and impossibly colourful package.

Everything about this film, from its raucous soundtrack to its exhilarating action sequences – including some of the best fight scenes in years, courtesy of John Wick’s stunt and fight coordinators, Jonathan Eusebio and Jon Valera – is infectiously fun, imparting its audience with a very potent contact high. And sure, the film has some slight pacing issues towards the middle, and some of the characters may be teetering on the side of flat, but who the hell cares when they’re having this much fun? Forget Bombshell or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, this is the role Margot Robbie deserves an Oscar for.

Birds of Prey could easily have coasted on its entertainment factor alone and come out unscathed, yet Christina Hodson’s screenplay also lends the story real heart, exploring Harley Quinn’s attempt to find meaning in a life separate from the Joker’s, and her discovering friendship and sisterhood.

In fact, the film itself can be distilled to a celebration of women finding their voice, their drive, their independence, and each other. Cathy Yan’s creative direction imbues Birds of Prey with a sizzling feminine energy, from the smallest detail (Harley lending Black Canary a hair-tie while she’s breaking shins) to its core themes (men’s constant underestimation of its female characters), this is the gleefully brutal, irreverently feminist film the world deserves.

CROSSBREED

DIRECTOR: BRIAN SLAGLE / SCREENPLAY: BRIAN SLAGLE, ROBERT THOMPSON / STARRING: VIVICA A. FOX, DANIEL BALDWIN, STINK FISHER, DEVANNY PINN, VERNON WELLS / RELEASE DATE: VOD OUT NOW

A squad of ex-“oorah” marines are sent by the President of the New United States of America on a suicide mission to retrieve an alien bio-weapon in the lacklustre and sluggish Crossbreed.

Sci-Fi Military films can be brilliant – they can expertly merge true to life stories with the fantastical in order to create vast worlds and rich, interesting characters, or they can be an excuse to have blockhead pieces of meat run around with guns talking about how big their dicks are – and in the case of this particular film, it is most certainly the latter.

Adam (Fisher) has retired from military service and now runs a bar in honour of his deceased wife and daughter before he recruited back to take on this dangerous mission by the President (Fox) in return for a large cash sum which will help his struggling business venture. He also gets to put together his own squad of muscle which presents us with an eye-rolling montage introducing us to these weak and boring characters meaning we as an audience can’t wait for the bloodshed to begin.

In terms of character development, Adam (also known as “Boss”) and his close friend Rey (or “Slaughterhouse”) are the only two who even possess a personality – the others who, quite frankly are incredibly forgettable, are just there to be violently pulled apart by the “Crossbreed” that the title of the film eludes too. Now, this alien creature is arguably the only memorable aspect of the film as actress Devanny Pinn was put in prosthetics for the role and the creature design was visually appealing as she stalks the marines and evolves throughout the film.

Ultimately, this wayward and, in terms of dialogue, cringy attempt at a sci-fi action film is wooden, noisy and very forgettable.

ATOMIC APOCALYPSE (BLACK FLOWERS)

DIRECTOR: MARTIN GOOCH / SCREENPLAY: MARTIN GOOCH / STARRING: KRISTA DEMILLE, ANDREA SWEENEY BLANCO, JESUS LLOVERAS, WILLIAM MARK MCCULLOUGH, RON ROGGE / RELEASE DATE: TBC

After the world is plunged into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, one family must fight for survival in Atomic Apocalypse.

Post-apocalyptic films are a powerhouse of a sub-genre on their own – with the likes of Mad Max and 28 Days Later being some key prime examples of phenomenal films – however, in the case of this particular effort, a strong start quickly loses its steam with lacklustre dialogue and a distinct absence of a clear path to its conclusion.

Kate (DeMille), her husband Sam (Rogge) and daughter Suzy (Blanco) have survived the wasteland for over 600 days before they meet Joe (Lloveras) who might not be the nice guy he pretends to be. Along their journey of finding supplies, they encounter a whole host of wacky characters (which one might expect in these kinds of stories) that in any other post-apocalyptic tale would probably fit in but in terms of Atomic Apocalypse which starts off fairly serious in tone, these characters just feel too cartoony.

The two main aspects that this film can be praised is its ability on a low budget to present sets that feel like abandoned buildings (probably because they are) and Kate DeMille’s solid performance as a normal mother who has to adapt to this new world in order to keep her family safe.

However, those two points alone couldn’t save the film ultimately being poorly paced and wayward as, on the other end of the spectrum, ridiculous character choices and a sudden bemusing ending that didn’t fit the tone of the beginning of the film (which kind of felt like a “happily ever after” setpiece) fails to engage the audience in this world or trepidations that these characters are experiencing.

AMONG THE SHADOWS

DIRECTOR: TIAGO MESQUITA / SCREENPLAY: MARK MORGAN / STARRING: LINDSAY LOHAN, CHARLOTTE BECKETT, GIANNI CAPALDI, JOHN FLANDERS / RELEASE DATE: VOD OUT NOW

In 2022, the European Union has disbanded and a new European Federation has risen. A Private Investigator must solve the mystery of her uncle’s murder during the election – also there are werewolves… and vampires… oh, and Lindsay Lohan as the First Lady.

Among the Shadows is a Horror Political Drama – with no Drama, very little logical and understandable Politics and no horror (except for how horrifically bad it is). From the opening text monologue (that even includes the word ‘FREXIT’ describing France’s exit from the EU), it’s an utter mess – abysmal writing and dialogue, nauseating editing meaning the “action” scenes are an agonising assault on the eyes which could lead to migraines unlike anyone has ever experienced and the most wooden acting you’ve ever seen.

Even Lindsay Lohan was unable to save this monstrosity – we even think she knew how bad this project was as it’s obviously apart that 99% of her scenes in the film when she is acting across from her fellow cast members, she isn’t in the same room and is in fact in front of green screen, halfway across the world, in a room with terrible acoustics.

The Director clearly had zero idea on how to pace the movie or how to move the plot along as between almost every scene we are bombarded with generic, stock footage aerial shots of major cities before it turns into guerilla filmmaking with actors walking through real scenarios without any of the background people knowing what was going on.

On top of all that, the “special effects” are far from that – the werewolves were just comprised of fake nashers and glowing eyes lazily tacked on giving them no menace or tenacity and quite frankly the entire film was overall simply offensive to anyone that enjoys the medium of film.

COLOR OUT OF SPACE

COLOR OUT OF SPACE | CERT: 15 | DIRECTOR: RICHARD STANLEY | SCREENPLAY: SCARLETT AMARIS | STARRING: NICOLAS CAGE, Q’ORIANKA KILCHER, JOELY RICHARDSON | RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 28TH

When it was announced that Nicolas Cage was teaming up with Richard Stanley to adapt a story by H.P. Lovecraft, a certain subset of pop-culture geekdom lost its collective mind.

Cage’s fans know the drill by now. Whereas Samuel L. Jackson famously takes a ‘one for you, one for me’ approach towards picking projects – attempting to find a healthy balance between artistic endeavour and paying the bills – Nicolas Cage takes more of a ‘nine for you, one for me’ approach, whereby he churns out a huge number of movies each year and we, the audience, are left to pan for gold and figure out which movie is the one he actually cared about that year. In 2017, it was Mom and Dad, last year, it was Mandy and, in 2019, it seems like it was Color Out of Space. This film is the Cagiest that Cage has been in years – and that’s, very much, a good thing.

Stanley’s fans, on the other hand, don’t really know the drill by now. Color Out of Space marks the first scripted feature from him since his infamous firing from cinematic disasterpiece The Island of Dr. Moreau, over 20 years ago. Digital aesthetic aside, there’s little to set this film apart from the body of work Stanley was producing back then. It fits right in.

Lovecraft fans, on the proverbial third hand, thought they knew the drill by now, but it turns out they were trying to use a masonry bit instead of a flat-spade bit to bore a hole into a piece of plywood (in other words: they didn’t know the drill at all). Lovecraft’s work is known for being difficult to adapt to screen and most attempts to do so are known for being failures.

Now, however, between the likes of this film, the H.P.-inspired angst of The Lighthouse and Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah’s plans to create an entire Lovecraft cinematic universe, perhaps the tide is turning. Perhaps we’re on the cusp on a wave of filmmakers suddenly understanding what makes Lovecraft stories work as movies, just as has happened to Stephen King over the last few years.

Color Out of Space is a strange film in that you always feel somewhat disconnected from it. The plot – a meteorite crashes close to a family home and begins to infect the life around it in strange, alien ways – offers nothing you haven’t seen before (and, frankly, nothing you haven’t seen done better) elsewhere. There’s an argument to be made that there’s no real justification for this film to exist in the same world as John Carpenter’s The Thing.

That said, the film taps into a truly dreamlike quality – sliding from transient and eerily peaceful to utterly nightmarish at the drop of a hat. It’s genuinely disturbing in some places and, when combined with its sly sense of humour and ample amounts of Nicolas Cage action (at one point, he has a tantrum that involves shouting “slam dunk” while throwing vegetables in the bin), you get a very satisfying film that leaves you excited to see what else the production company, SpectreVision, has in store.

NiNoKuni

ninokuni

NINOKUNI / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: YOSHIYUKI MOMOSE / SCREENPLAY: AKIHIRO HINO / STARRING: KENTO YAMAZAKI, TUCKER CHANDLER, RAY CHASE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (NETFLIX)

Based in the same world as the video game, this is an anime set in both present day Tokyo and the fantasy world of NiNoKuni. Two best friends are both in love with same girl, who’s stabbed by a mysterious assailant. Whilst trying to save her life, they’re magically transported to a medieval fantasy realm where they set out to see the princess, who looks exactly like their love interest back home. It then becomes apparent that the fates of people in the two worlds are linked, but do they share the same or opposite fates?

Anyone who’s played the first 20 minutes of the game will already know the answer to that question. However, the world itself is presented as a fairly generic fantasy world, so no knowledge of the video games is really necessary. It is an interesting concept, but one that’s executed horribly and nothing about it feels particularly original. The story should be paced better, spread out over maybe a 12-part anime perhaps but as a film it simply doesn’t work and feels a disjointed mess. A lot happens throughout the film, travelling back and forth between the two worlds, but little time is dedicated to the characters themselves.

The NiNoKuni games and their world look beautiful, and are full of quirky anime fantasy that you’d expect from something designed by Studio Ghibli. The film however is far from it, without Ghibli’s influence it just feels generic and lacklustre. The animation itself is decent and has some nice special effects, but like everything else about then film, it feels like something you’ve seen countless times before.

Character development seems to happen, but it’s just so rushed and poorly executed that it seems to come out of nowhere and makes it impossible to relate to anyone. Making it even harder to empathise with them is how ridiculous their reactions are to things. “Why are you holding her like that?” is not an appropriate response to finding your girlfriend with a large knife sticking out of her covered in blood, nor is picking her up and attempting to carry her to the hospital in a modern city full of vehicles and mobile phones. These are just two of a series of silly decisions made by the unbelievable characters in this film.

The predictable, choreographed plot twists are overly explained through flashbacks and dialogue, which together really patronises the viewer, indicating that maybe this film is aimed at a much younger audience. The dialogue is often poorly written and drably executed with one irritating character torn between a bad Irish and Scottish accent. At times it’s hard to tell if it’s just lost in translation or an awful script.

The concept for NiNoKuni is interesting but lifted straight out of the video game without a good plan on how to further explore it. It becomes an accidental parody of its own genre brimming with clichés. At times it falls into to the so bad it’s good territory, but for the most part, it’s just bland and forgettable.

BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)

Prey

DIRECTOR: CATHY YAN | WRITER: CHRISTINA HODSON | STARRING: MARGOT ROBBIE, MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD, JURNEE SMOLLETT-BELL, ROSIE PEREZ, CHRIS MESSINA, ELLA JAY BASCO, ALI WONG, EWAN MCGREGOR | RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 7TH

It’s difficult to engage in Birds of Prey-related discourse because there isn’t too much we can say that the film doesn’t address. Paper-thin characters and weak conclusion aside, it’s a no-holds-barred joyride made even more enjoyable by a ridiculously talented cast and a metric shit-ton of twisted humour. For better or worse, it’s exactly what it means to be.

Birds of Prey depicts a newly single Harley who’s ready to love and be loved, an approach that, upon inspection, actually takes her closer to her roots. She’s the most dynamic character here and the only aspect steering the picture away from mediocrity. Her psychological spinout originates from love so powerful it borders on magnetism. It stands to reason, then, that she would find a different kind of attachment and settle into her role as big sister to one hell of a pickpocket. This take on Harley, coupled with a stunning, tonally-appropriate Black Mask, puts Birds of Prey a cut above other DC offerings.

Exercising prudence, director Cathy Yan and writer Christina Hodson have crafted a film both for the present and for posterity, ensuring that Harley and company can thrill audiences without fretting about generational differences. The film doesn’t work our brains or emotions past our culturally-cultivated infatuation for its eponymous heroines, but it’s so infectiously earnest, so unabashedly wild that its hollowness is easier to ignore. But, like a patterned mallet crashing into a skull, Birds of Prey disorients. It all feels as unhinged and erratic as Harley herself, with more backtracking and sidestepping than fans may prefer. This may work for some more than it will for others because it reflects her eccentricities.

The movie succeeds in transforming Margot Robbie into the best, most realised iteration of Harley we’ll probably ever get. In fact, the filmmakers seem to enjoy her so much that it’s all they can do not to make it a full-blown Harley Quinn movie. We understand the impulse.

Birds of Prey may not hit every beat, but it uses its characters and concepts well enough. Does it reach the creative heights DC executives had hoped it would? No. Does it give it an honest go? Absolutely. Because, at the end of the day, Birds of Prey pulls off its premise with aplomb and has an absolute blast doing it.

 

THE TURNING

turning

DIRECTOR: FLORIA SIGISMONDI | SCREENPLAY: CAREY W. HAYES, CHAD HAYES | STARRING: MACKENZIE DAVIS, FINN WOLFHARD, BROOKLYNN PRINCE, JOELY RICHARDSON | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The Turning is the most recent adaptation of the classic 1898 Henry James’ horror novella, The Turn of the Screw.  The original is widely regarded as a cornerstone of modern suspense horror, written in a self-contained way so that the reader always comes away with something new from the text. It’s been successfully adapted multiple times since its publication, but sadly this latest version, directed by Floria Sigismondi is a mess. 2020’s The Turning is set in 1992 (presumably so mobile phones aren’t a thing); Mackenzie Davis plays Kate, a young woman hired to be the live-in tutor for a creepy little girl, Flora Fairchild (played superbly by The Florida Project’s Brooklynn Prince). Flora lives in a huge mansion with only the equally creepy caretaker, Mrs Grose (Marten ). When Flora’s older brother, a damaged and disturbed child called Miles (Wolfhard), returns from boarding school, Kate finds herself terrorised by him and slowly uncovers the dark secrets of the house.

All of this makes the movie a lot more interesting than it actually is. Though the plot is quite thin, there’s more than enough there to make a solid story, and it’s been done before. Alas, the director overly relies on ramping up the volume on the soundtrack and hitting the viewer with jump-scares and double bluffs. Every possible twist can be seen miles ahead, and as a result, it’s almost comical at times. If you’ve ever seen a horror movie, you can easily predict what the next shock will be, making the whole thing a waste of time.

The performances are very strong. Mackenzie Davis gives it her all as a woman going slowly mad, making the best out of a weak script and insipid direction. Finn Wolfhard, better known for his work in Stranger Things, is almost unrecognisable in this as an angry child with too much entitlement. The movie wobbles along under its own weight for the most part, only managing to deliver boring surprises and under-cooked special effects.

There’s an attempt to emulate the source material by making certain elements of the plot obscure and unsure. We are meant to leave this feature with a vague sense of unease, unsure of what has actually happened and pondering the possibility of the supernatural. Instead, we get this confused mess. It feels like they couldn’t decide on an ending and threw as many as they could against the wall to see what sticks.

The Turning is a big bundle of wasted potential. There are elements all the way along of what this simple horror film could have been, had it stuck to one path. Instead, we get a desperate collection of the usual cheap tricks from any given scary movie made in the last thirty years. Alas, the most disturbing thing about this feature is the realisation you’re never getting the time you spent watching it back. 

THE GRUDGE

DIRECTOR: NICOLAS PESCE | SCREENPLAY: NICOLAS PESCE | STARRING: ANDREA RISEBOROUGH, JOHN CHO, LIN SHAYE, JACKIE WEAVER, DEMAIN BICHIR, BETTY GILPIN | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Set in the same universe as the other American Grudge films, this is the latest instalment of the horror franchise that, like Kayako’s curse, does not want to stay dead.

Much like the previous movies, this story is recounted in non-linear order, allowing the audience to slowly uncover the true horrors of the story along with the central protagonist Muldoon (Riseborough). Sadly, it’s one of the only elements that actually work in the film.

The story follows four primary plots: Detective Muldoon’s story – as she attempts to solve what is happening at the cursed house; The Landers – the family responsible for bringing Kayako to America from Japan; The Spencers – a real-estate couple who were in the wrong place at the wrong time; and The Mathesons – an old couple who inherited the curse when they moved in post-Landers. The problem with this four-pronged approach here is that none of the characters or scenarios felt special or substantial, and the ties that link them together feel flimsy at best. Not only that, but a large majority of the deaths and scares within these sub-stories are highly predictable and, bar some terrific practical gore, just weren’t scary – one would think that a lot of it was toned down by studio executives in order to hit that sweet PG-13 rating in the States.

The crucial positive to take away from The Grudge is the direction and artistic presentation of the film. Pesce is known for having a wonderful eye – just look at last year’s superbly stylized Piercing or his 2016 debut The Eyes of My Mother. The Grudge utilizes an unnerving filter that enhances the grain and therefore feel of being a film from the time period it is set in. Each scene has a raw potential that builds up the tension through its sound design and camera placement – it’s just the payoff that fails to make you even flinch in surprise, shock, or terror.

With a weak script, dull characters and predictable scares, The Grudge fails to deliver a truly memorable western adaptation of the Japanese classic and instead is something that just isn’t scary. That said, it’s not quite as forgettable as it could have been, and this is due to Pesce’s excellent direction and artistic eye, coupled with an admirable performance by the ensemble cast. Unfortunately, these few positives won’t be able to prevent the film from disappointing fans of its source or predecessors.