Review Category: Movie

When the upstairs neighbour of blind pianist Sofia falls from her balcony, the police initially write it off as a suicide. Since the deceased Veronique was in some kind of trouble as well as coming from a suspect family, Sofia suspects the woman was murdered. As she becomes targeted by violent criminals she is drawn ever further into a darkened underworld where nobody is who they seem, including Sofia herself.

Initially, In Darkness is a thoroughly engaging watch. A distinctive aesthetic dominates early on, reflecting Sofia’s visually impaired experience of the world around her. The occasional sensory overload features staccato scattershots of objects shown in close-up to throw in your face her perception of the noise they make. In addition, frequent disorienting camera angles keep you from properly trusting what you can actually see, underscoring the unreliability of sight and giving us some limited understanding of Sofia’s everyday life. With such an intriguing setup and stylised visuals, it seems that perhaps the film will go down the same kind of route as one of Brian De Palma’s lurid mysteries, but no such luck.

After such a promising start, the film unfortunately then descends into a convoluted mess. The surreal touches disappear to be replaced by a generic conspiracy that surrenders any sense of true mystery for a litany of pointless connections between the characters and meaningless revelations that add absolutely nothing.

As Sofia becomes stalked by numerous undesirables all hunting for a flash drive Veronique reportedly had in her possession, the background plot is revealed in piecemeal instalments, spiralling ever more into implausibility with each new revelation. Various characters drift in and out of the story, including a mysterious man with apparent ties to Sofia’s past; Veronique’s father, a former Serbian warlord accused of war crimes; and the head of a security firm and her enforcer brother, the latter of whom Sofia begins something resembling a relationship that further complicates an already messy narrative.

Attempts are made to keep a modicum of interest by periodic flashes of some vaguely defined tragedy in Sofia’s childhood, but they don’t actually provoke any interest, merely acting as placeholders until their significance is adequately explained. The underlying mystery is maintained only by actively withholding information, later revelations not marrying up with how characters previously behaved. Worst of all, the film commits the cardinal sin of lying to the audience in order to preserve the secrecy of its developments.

Despite a compelling opening, In Darkness ultimately reveals itself to be a substandard thriller, its increasingly ludicrous plot becoming irritating rather than entertaining, and eventually it feels like it doesn’t actually matter how the film will end, just that it soon does.

In Darkness / Cert: 15 / Director: Anthony Byrne / Screenplay: Anthony Byrne, Natalie Dormer / Starring: Natalie Dormer, Ed Skrein, Joely Richardson, James Cosmo, Neil Maskell, Jan Bijvoet, Emily Ratajkowski / Release Date: July 6th

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

After four children and their mother flee to America to escape their father, they take refuge in the mother’s family home, a dilapidated country estate where they can hide from the world. Soon afterwards their mother passes away and the siblings are left to fend for themselves until the eldest Jack reaches his 21st  birthday and so can legally inherit the estate and prevent them from being separated into foster care.

For much of The Secret of Marrowbone it’s a low-key and mildly engaging gothic drama, to the extent that the entity that may or may not be scrabbling in the attic is an issue so minor it’s barely a distraction. This is quite surprising given that writer-director Sergio G Sánchez was previously the scripter for insidious Spanish horror The Orphanage, but it’s made up for with a pervasively sinister atmosphere created by the home of crumbing edifice, creaking floorboards, overgrown gardens and cracked mirrors.

Their only connection to the outside world is Allie, a girl living on a nearby farm with whom they quickly become friends and Jack develops a fledgling relationship. As well as being English children in America, their disassociation is furthered by their looking somewhat out of time, as despite the story being set in the late ‘60s, the siblings inexplicably dress like it’s the early ‘20s.

When the story remembers to mention it, the looming spectre of exactly what it is they’re running from threatens to be revealed to the town at large, and in particular the sleazy lawyer dealing with the estate’s inheritance transfer. The moments featuring flashes of the something that’s scratching inside the walls are suitably creepy, and if there had been more of a focus on that, the film as a whole might have had something compelling to drive it.

The principal problem is the twist at the core of the story. The persistent issue with films whose plot hinges on one significant development is that unless it’s something spectacular it runs the risk of completely undoing any grace it may have built up. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens here, and the point at which Marrowbone unleashes its grand revelation is the moment it all falls apart.

The twist doesn’t hold up to the mildest scrutiny, and the more you think about it and realise the extent to which it undermines everything to have thus far occurred, the angrier it will make you. It approaches Shyamalan levels of obnoxious bullshit, both in terms of the nonsensical twist itself and also its smug declaration being blissfully ignorant of the vast gulf between the perceived level of intellect and the reality. It erroneously believes it inspires you to rethink everything you’ve previously seen, and it’s a small mercy that we’re not forced to endure a montage of scenes from this new perspective.

The Secret of Marrowbone is most of a watchable if somewhat underwhelming drama with horror grace notes, but its arrogant complacency in failing to properly set itself up to remain plausible after it drops its ludicrous bombshell makes it a prime example of how to do such things wrong.

The Secret of Marrowbone / Cert: 15 / Director & Screenplay: Sergio G Sánchez / Starring: George Mackay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Mia Goth, Matthew Stagg, Kyle Soller / Release Date: July 13th

Expected Rating:  6 out of 10

Although The Incredibles was released fourteen years ago, Incredibles 2 picks up fourteen seconds after it left off with the appearance of mole-themed villain the Underminer, and launches straight into an energetic action sequence where the Parr family – super-strong dad Bob, stretching mum Helen, invisible and forcefield-projecting teenage daughter Violet, and speedster young son Dash, battle him using their newfound cohesive combination of their powers. After the fight they face repercussions for their illegal superheroics, prompting their recruitment by Winston and Evelyn Deavor, sibling tech entrepreneurs who want to change the public image of superheroes and push for their re-legalisation. Helen becomes the poster girl for the movement, leaving Bob at home to look after the kids while she is away on missions, all the while a sinister new supervillain emerges from the shadows.

By all rights, Incredibles 2 is a film that shouldn’t work nowadays. The first movie was a nigh-perfect blend of Silver Age superheroics and family dynamics, but 2004 was a point halfway between when comic book superhero movies had begun to grow in ubiquity but before the rise of the MCU took them to a new and complex level. Traditional superheroes and their moral rigidity are a thing of the past, so a story seeking to mine that tapped vein risks seeming pre-emptively dated. Fortunately for all involved, Incredibles 2 is a whole lot of fun, with just as much action, mystery and family dysfunction as before.

The switch of Helen being front and centre instead of Bob avoids the danger of repeating the first film’s structure. Her kinetic and exhilarating solo action sequences – featuring a runaway train and a helicopter rescue – are executed with precise elegance through making full use of her stretching power and agility, especially when contrasted against Bob’s wrecking-ball super strength.

While Helen handles the heroics, much of the humour comes from Bob’s time at home as he discovers that dealing with the likes of Violet’s boy trouble, Dash’s academic struggling, and baby Jack-Jack’s need for constant attention is just as much of a challenge as battling supervillains. Lone parenting is a situation it’s reasonably safe to assume he’s never faced before, and he tries to be supportive of his wife’s new success despite it clearly frustrating him that she has been handed everything that he himself wanted, leaving him still yearning for the opportunity to relive his past glory that now tantalisingly hovers inches from his frustrated grasp. There is also the issue of Jack-Jack’s newly emerging litany of powers – including laser eyes, shapeshifting, electric blasts, flame form, teleporting and phase shifting – which provides no end of physical comedy (his fight with a racoon raking through the bins is a particular highlight).

The villainy this time around comes in the insidious form of the Screenslaver, a nebulous figure able to hijack broadcast frequencies and transmit mind-controlling signals onto screens, giving a different kind of danger to overcome. The first film’s villain Syndrome, with his indestructible Omnidroid and paralysing zero-point beams, was a purely physical threat, but as has been extensively explored throughout comic book history, no amount of raw power is a defence against mental invasions, particularly in this case when they have limitless range and can utilise any number of innocents and heroes alike as quite literal puppets. The Screenslaver also joins the small rank of the best kind of villains, one whose motivation is not only understandable, but also when you take a moment to think about it you have to concede they actually have a point.

The film is not quite as narratively sublime as Pixar typically manages, with a key plot point being too much like a retread of a similar development in the first film to not feel at least a little disappointing, and the location and scenario of the third act confrontation is too heavily signposted to come as the slightest surprise. However, they’re nevertheless minor issues that do little to detract from the spirited fun of everything else, and only the most cynical will find nothing to enjoy.

While not quite matching the highs of its predecessor, Incredibles 2 is still an energetic ride of excitement, adventure, humour and heart, and one that establishes plenty of scope for progression should Pixar wish to continue the series. Let’s just hope they don’t leave it so long next time.

INCREDIBLES 2 / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: BRAD BIRD / SCREENPLAY: BRAD BIRD / STARRING: CRAIG T NELSON, HOLLY HUNTER, SARAH VOWELL, HUCK MILNER, SAMUEL L JACKSON, BOB ODENKIRK, CATHERINE KEENER / RELEASE DATE: JULY 13TH

Expected Rating: 9 out of 10

When horror fan Dax and his best friends attend a festival recreating horror movies, they get more than they bargained for when they find out the terror and death is real and must fight for their lives against an army of monsters and masked maniacs.

Blood Fest feels like it should have been made 20 years ago in the wake of Scream, when it was still a relatively fresh idea to have horror movies blurring the lines between configured fiction and jaded reality, and populated by a group of genre-savvy young things.

Dex is a quintessential horror protagonist in having a tragic backstory (his mother was murdered by a mentally disturbed slasher fan, seen in the prologue that plays exactly like a slasher prologue) and his friends, deadpan hot chick Sam and tech nerd Krill, each tick the boxes of archetypal characters. In search of a way out the small group of survivors stumble through various horror scenarios featuring shambling zombies, rampaging killer clowns, seductive vampire babes, and a somewhat dismissive parody of Saw, all the while flip-flopping between attempting to defy genre tradition and obliviously playing up to it.

And herein is the main problem. If you’re going to make a film that runs on self-awareness of horror’s trappings, it’s important to avoid moments that conform to them with zero sense of irony, else, like here, you completely undermine the entire setup. Also, going too far the other way by having characters point out that their actions and dialogue mimic the clichés of horror movies doesn’t actually excuse it.

To be fair, the film makes some valid points during the villain’s rant about how commercialised and toothless the genre has largely become, but this is not expanded upon beyond motivation for his implausibly over-elaborate planning. Likewise, despite it being explicitly stated that survivors need to follow the rules of horror movies to escape, the film quickly forgets about this.

The film does have intermittent aspects to recommend it. There are some amusing moments punctuating the gore, such as a zombie reaching to vape after punching through someone’s chest, or Zachary Levi cameoing as himself and having his tale of harrowing survival continually interrupted by a squeeing girl obsessed with Tangled. The young cast are fully committed to the lunacy; the practical effects are a welcome change to the CGI overkill increasingly infesting these films; and the atmosphere is maintained by stylish set pieces in traditional locales like empty high school corridors, a creepy graveyard, claustrophobic basement tunnels and the perennial favourite of a cabin in the woods. Given the structured journey through individual settings, the story might have worked better had it been a short TV series rather than a single film, each episode seeing the band of survivors navigate a different flavour of horror movie, similar to the way in which the gloriously demented Blood Drive was a succession of mini grindhouse movies.

The frustrating thing about Blood Fest is that it can’t seem to decide what kind of film it is. It clearly wants to be a metafictional piece of postmodern horror comedy, and while it’s certainly too dumb to not be at least partially entertaining, it all feels far too familiar for a film bemoaning such formulaic predictability and calling for rectification of it.

BLOOD FEST / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: OWEN EGERTON / SCREENPLAY: OWEN EGERTON / STARRING: ROBBIE KAY, SEYCHELLE GABRIEL, JACOB BATALON, BARBARA DUNKELMAN, CHRIS DOUBEK, OWEN EGERTON / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

When teenage schoolgirl Margot goes missing, her widowed father David scours the internet and social media for any clue as to what might have happened to her, uncovering secrets along the way that make him question how well he knows his daughter.

First off, that description probably doesn’t make this film sound particularly appealing, especially when information researching sequences are among the most tedious that modern films have to offer, and so having an entire film consisting of that might put people off. However, Searching is an utterly riveting watch.

Everything that occurs in the film takes place on a screen, be it video calls, news reports, search engine scouring, social media navigation, security footage or livestreaming, all stitched together to relate the increasingly frantic search for Margot, and David’s mounting desperation to uncover any trace of what became of her.

Before all that, the film opens with a sequence as emotional and heartbreaking as those wordless four minutes of Up. Beginning with Margot’s birth, we see her grow up in a video montage of family memories and unconditional love, then her mother Pam becoming ill and eventually passing away. Too often in thrillers where a loved one goes missing, they exist as a nebulous entity whose sole purpose is to motivate the protagonist. But after experiencing sixteen years of family tribulations in a matter of minutes it also gives us a true sense of what David had and has already lost, and by extension how much he still has to lose. This allows us to empathise with his every decision and action since we’ve been provided with all the context we could require.

The visual epistolary is an intriguing stylistic choice, and what could have been dismissed as a mere gimmick instead quickly establishes itself as an indispensible tool of the story’s development. We witness David’s initial attempts to navigate the unfamiliar world of social media’s innumerable facets (“What’s a tumbler?”), through to figuring out how to contact people over the internet, and as he becomes more adept he begins cross-referencing new information with minor details previously stumbled across.

The more David uncovers the more he realises how little he actually knows his daughter. Not just in the typical way of children presenting a different face to their parents that they do to their friends, but also through the growing realisation of his inability to truly connect with Margot following her mother’s death. In many instances we learn things about Margot at the same time David does, and in this way the title refers not only to the search for her and the associated internet function, but also his delving into who his daughter actually is.

Thankfully, there’s none of the usual patronising dismissal of social media’s validity, and instead there are brief looks into issues like how the persona people present online can be artificially constructed illusions, and the multitude of ways available for people to stay in touch with one another can sometimes amplify the crushing isolation of those who feel alone. There are also glances at the insensitive postings people make regarding Margot’s disappearance, all vomiting reactionary opinions and ignorant trolling without consideration that they refer to real people suffering the worst trauma anyone can endure.

Searching is meticulously constructed and tightly plotted, and despite the apparent limitations of its visual storytelling method is as intense and gripping as any action thriller, while also being all the more compelling for its real-life grounding and emotional relatability.

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

SEARCHING / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR: ANEESH CHAGANTY / SCREENPLAY: ANEESH CHAGANTY, SEV OHANIAN / STARRING: JOHN CHO, DEBRA MESSING, MICHELLE LA, JOSEPH LEE, SARA SOHN / RELEASE DATE: 31ST AUGUST

Written and directed by Mari Okada, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is a breathtakingly beautiful animation which centres around motherhood and mortality. Belonging to a clan whose members stop ageing in their mid-teens, Maquia has no parents and although her days are peaceful, she can’t help but feel completely alone. Things only get worse when her clan are attacked by an invading army who plan to use the inhabitant’s immortality for nefarious means. After a series of uncontrollable events, Maquia soon finds herself thrown into the mortal realm where she discovers an orphaned baby whose parents have been brutally slaughtered. Locked tightly in his mother’s arms, Maquia is moved by the power of a mother’s love and decides to raise him as her own. Over time she starts to learn what it means to be a mother and the inevitable heartbreak that comes with it.

One of the most prolific screenwriters working in animation today, Mari Okada has finally been able to showcase her directing skills for the first time. Expertly crafted, Okada has created one of the best looking animated films of the year with a universal message that will appeal to audiences of all ages.  Although at times it does venture into the overemotional, it ultimately manages to keep it together thanks to a tight script and strong recurring message. With motherhood being one of its core themes, there’s also a light shone on the fragility of life and self-sacrifice. Whilst these themes are interwoven into the story, Okada is able to carefully balance them as she injects humour into precisely the right moments. The emotions are heightened further thanks to Kenji Kawai’s fantastical score which not only perfectly captures the overall tone of the film but also manages to sweep the viewer into a plethora of emotions.

At just under 2 hours long, there’s enough here to keep one’s attention throughout and although it may not be for everyone, those with a strong interest in animation will appreciate the level of detail that has gone into both the world and the visuals to this epic, high fantasy tale. A film which will stick with you long after the end credits roll, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is a surprisingly effective movie which will appeal to those who follow Japanese animation. Anyone with an affinity for the works of Studio Ghibli will find plenty here that’s thematically similar to their older works and whilst the animation may be stylistically different, there’s just as much love and detail that’s been put into the narrative. Focusing on the hardships one has to go through in order to protect their child, there’s a lot here that will resonate with older audiences and although it may get a little predictable, it should leave even the coldest of hearts, warmed by the very end. Soppy, heartfelt and at times over-sentimental, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is a wonderful animation that manages, for the most part, to hit all the right notes.

MAQUIA: WHEN THE PROMISED FLOWER BLOOMS / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: MARI OKADA / SCREENPLAY: MARI OKADA / STARRING: MANAKA IWAMI,  MIYU IRINO,  AI KAYANO / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 27TH

The latest account of the creation of one the greatest works of literature and an incredibly important keystone of the horror genre as we know it is attractive looking but ultimately disappointing, rather like some of the cast.

Young Mary (Fanning) is the daughter of a prominent, but less than opulent, writer and bookstore owner William Godwin (Dillane), and is often spending her time reading salacious horror stories and attempting to write her own rather than helping out around the shop and house. This is more of an issue to her stepmother (Joanne Froggatt) who recognises the rebellious and free-thinking spirit of her mother – the famous feminist Mary Wollstonecraft – and she is shipped off to friends in Scotland. It’s here where she meets the dashing young poet Percy Shelley (Booth). When she has to return home, Shelley enters their household as a protégé of Godwin and they continue their affair. When her father finds out, she runs away with the poet and continues her passion for writing.

It’s at Lake Geneva at the lavish home of the depraved Lord Byron (Sturridge) that Mary, her stepsister Claire (Powley), Shelley and Dr John Polidori (Hardy) spend several months of decadence before a light-hearted task is set to see who can create the most terrifying story. Influenced by the people around them, Polidori and Mary both come up trumps but the outcome isn’t as straightforward as either would have hoped.

While previous adaptations of the story of behind the writing of Frankenstein have relished in the Gothic macabre, director Haifaa Al-Mansour – making her first English language movie – takes a more Merchant Ivory approach and focuses more on the emotions that inspired the 19-year-old to create one of literature’s most enduring creations. Although one of the problems is that the story doesn’t go far enough into the excesses and debauchery of those she chose to spend her time. Percy Shelley is reduced to a Hugh Grant-ish fop with little in the way of characterisation and the alleged depravity of Bryon is hinted at rather than fully explored. Mary, however, is depicted as a woman ahead of her time and even this isn’t truly explored.

Although the film is two hours long, it moves along at far too zippy a pace to really get to grips with the themes and encounters that formed Mary’s imagination and emotional creation of the creature in her famous novel. We’re told it rather than really feel it. The subject would be better served (and no doubt received), perhaps, as a Sunday night miniseries as no matter how wonderful this looks, it never gets to grips with the interesting and complex nature of Mary and her story.

There are a few nods to the fantastical element of Mary’s imagination, but perhaps the approach taken by the forgotten Lewis Carrol biopic Dreamchild (1985) would have better served the subject as the author clearly saw herself as the creature of her creation: lonely, outcast, and neglected.

Elle Fanning is, however, magnificent as Mary, and the rest of the cast do admirably but never quite get the chance to shine in their own right. For all our misgivings, it’s a beautiful-looking film that, with more focus or perhaps further space to tell its story, could have been much better.

MARY SHELLEY / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR: HAIFAA AL-MANSOUR / SCREENPLAY: EMMA JENSEN / STARRING: ELLE FANNING, MAISIE WILLIAMS, BEN HARDY, DOUGLAS BOOTH, BEL POWLEY, TOM STURRIDGE, STEPHEN DILLANE / RELEASE DATE: JULY 6TH

Expected Rating 8 out of 10