shallowness

As referred to here, I saw Thunderbolts* in the cinema. What I did not say was that a filling came out of my tooth while I was watching the trailers. Yes, I was eating a sweet at the time.

On streaming (on Prime): My Zoe. This came up in the science fiction section, so when it looked like a domestic drama (separated parents sharing custody of their daughter, Zoe, who then have to face something awful), I knew there would be more going on. There is, and I don’t want to spoil it. I’ll just say it’s intense, but judiciously handled (though I could quibble about some of the use of flashforwards and flashbacks.) The acting is seriously good from writer-director Julie Delpy, Richard Armitage, Daniel Bruhl, Gemma Arterton, Lindsay Duncan, and the kid is naturalistic. It’s dated 2021, so may not have had a UK cinema release.

She Said (on All4) is in the lineage of Spotlight (and yes, All The President’s Men), but, as the title suggests, from a female perspective. I thought the formal choices they made to foreground the survivors’ words, to show details of corridors or rooms, but nothing more, and not to show Weinstein’s face were effective, as was giving us enough details of the reporters’ personal lives to be invested in them and their investment. I don’t have strong feelings about the blending of some women playing themselves and others being represented by others. The wrongdoing revealed is horrifying and angering (and I was reminded at the top of Twohey and others reporting about Trump in this context and through the film of how NDAs are still a thing.)

I also rewatched Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning part 1 on the small screen. The action is still brilliant, but ( spoilers? )

This was in prep for Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (am amused that they dropped the ‘Dead Reckoning Part 2’. Am also not convinced that it will be the final final instalment if someone offers Cruise another couple of mad stunts he thinks he could pull off.) The action remains worth seeing in the cinema: ( Spoilers? ) The connective tissue is weaker. There was less of the Entity, it was more about what humans would do now that we were living in the Entity’s world, and although Hunt’s plan was clear, it didn’t really stand up to too much thinking about it.

( Spoilers )

I rewatched Black Widow in prep, and as Yelena and Alexei are funny and entertaining in it (and I followed who and what Taskmaster was better in this rewatch), it was probably worth it. ( Brief review. )

About fifteen people in my showing, with less than half leaving early, but the rest of us stayed until the post-credits scene. Among the trailers, Mission Impossible (which has been getting lots of free promo in the British news this week), Superman (i, did not realise that was coming out this summer, ii, unenthused about Krypto, iii, pretty leads, iv, willing to trust James Gunn up to a point) and Fantastic 4: First Steps (skipped the second iteration of F4. Going retro is going to make for comparisons with The Incredibles...but, fine, make the Silver Surfer female.) Am more enthused about Superman than Fantastic 4.

As for Thunderbolts*, overall, yes, it's an entertaining iteration of the scrappy team of powered people having done bad things learning to work together and maybe do good. It has the sense to know that Florence Pugh is the star, making Yelena Belova (who has the least powers) its heart and leader. Some of it is stuff we’ve seen before, deliberately so in some ways, but it’s better and more cohesive than Suicide Squad (backhand compliment though that is.) It has a nice line in being self-deprecating before the audience can be, and is consistently amusing, if not laugh out loud funny, while dealing with damaged, grieving people and continuing the touching relationship of a grown-up child assassin and her embarrassing adoptive dad hankering after glory days that never were first seen in Black Widow.

( tl;dr, spoilers, references to Trump )

As I'm not planning on going to the cinema tonight...

Black Bag ( Read more... )

Saw the cinematic trailer for Thunderbolts for the first time. If you emphasise that it features Yelena Belova and her found father and have a cover of a song that I like, apparently I’ll forget my issues with Marvel. (The trailer for Jurassic Whatever: In It For the Money also featured a cover of a song that I like and ScarJo, but no, I have no intention of going to see that.)

Mickey 17 ( Read more... )

The End ( Read more... )

In the cinema:

Companion is, arguably, a film you should know as little as possible about before going to see, (I had seen the trailer, which maybe gave too much away) although I’d say it’s probably not a date move and it got a 15 certificate in the UK, mainly for violence. I thought the script was excellent. ( spoilers ) It was scored by Hrishikesh Hirway of The West Wing Weekly, and the song choices are very good.

I posted about Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy here. I laughed and I cried and thought bits of it were a mess. I should perhaps issue the trigger warning that the first thing on screen is the Miramax logo (ew), which speaks to when the first Bridget Jones movie was made.

On streaming (Prime):

I watched Modern Persuasion (2019) and enjoyed it and as it’s the kind of thing I’d rec if it were a fic, I thought I’d reference it here. Yes, the title is clunky, but accurate: Persuasion is transferred to twenty-first century NYC but lets the premise breathe there. I loved most of the translations to the new setting ( Read more... ) So, if watching a Persuasion modern day AU by people who love the original appeals to you, it’s worth a look. (Admittedly, it’s no Clueless or Lizzie Bennet Diaries.)

The Wanting Mare (2022) was described as sci-fi, and I suppose it is, but not hard sci-fi, they use modern-enough tech (electricity, modes of transport, guns) and the folk tale elements are stronger. You could just as well call it science fantasy. It’s way more about the atmosphere than the plot, and though you get some answers, it sticks to its mysteries, and the ending left me with a completely different interpretation of what we’d seen. I found it really powerful. The trailer gives you a good sense of the mood, but a misleading sense of what will happen. (It’s rated 16+, mainly for brief but graphic injuries.) Give it five or ten minutes after the mumbling opening scene, and see if the sound of the sea, the use of montage and the glimpse of horses have drawn you in.

Posting twice in a day, because this is time sensitive.

There were two big cinema releases in the UK this weekend (sorry Heart Eyes): Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, the fourth Bridget Jones film vs. Captain America: Brave New World. I have thoughts about this! I’ve got history with both properties, if you will, but I was on the comic everywoman’s side over MCU’s latest offering ( Read more... )

As for the film itself, ( Read more... )

I'm going to carry on with this.

I returned to the cinema to see Wicked part 1, and it’s the first time I’ve gone to see a film for the second time in the cinema since 2019. It absolutely stood up to the rewatch, ( Read more... )

I had a fair idea of what to expect from We Live In Time – it’s a British-set romantic drama told in a non-linear fashion featuring two strong lead performances, though I have to admit I was just a little disappointed. ( Read more... )

It feels apt that I watched this (not live, but on Boxing Day night) at home on TV. (Okay, technically on my laptop.) For all that it was released as a feature film in the cinemas, it really is a glorified Christmas special, ( tl:dr )

I saw no films in the cinema in October – a particularly horror-obsessed month. But in late November, I went to see Blitz, and as the reviews said, it was somewhat old-fashioned, except from a Black British perspective. There’s also modern FX bringing the scale of the Blitz to life, and some handheld camera work that is sometimes immersive, sometimes baffling. It focuses on one family, as 9-year-old George decides to jump off the train evacuating him from London to go home, which starts off as a Boys Own adventure, then goes a bit Dickensian. His single mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan, as good as you’d expect. Also, she sings. I didn’t know she sang!) tries to carry on without him, until she finds out he’s gone missing. The kid has a presence.

Mark Kermode said he thought this was aimed at adolescents, which explains the broad characterisations. You’d want to have a think about how your twelve year old would react to seeing a film about a child facing things no child should experience, I imagine, because much of this really happened (and similar is happening in parts of the world now.)

I only heard about at the end of last week, but I badly want to see Your Monster (it sounds idtastic in a way that would appeal to me, but with emotional intelligence), however it wasn’t showing anywhere near my neck of the woods.

Instead I went to see Wicked part 1, I haven’t seen the show (nor read the book), but I’ve acquired a lot of knowledge about it over the years, and heard a lot of various versions of the songs. Take a bow, Jon M. Chu and everyone involved, I expect production and costume design to get nods at the Oscars. I loved the scale, the old-school nods to ‘The Wizard of Oz’, but the translation from stage to screen was really good, ( tl:dr spoilers )

In short then, this is pretty great – Erivo is brilliant, Grande good (heh) and the number of good songs are pluses. I can see myself trying to go to see it in the cinema again, and I haven’t felt that pull since Dune part 2. Also, nobody sang in the screening.

Sticking with early nineteenth century France, but watching a French film made by French people, I went to see The Count of Monte Cristo at the start of the month. I haven’t read the book, I vaguely remember the Guy Pearce adaptation from years ago. I believe this is from the team who made the two The Musketeers films recently, and the desire to watch them has been reignited in me by this.

( Read more... )

I went to see Lee, a biopic of Lee Miller, starring and a passion project for Kate Winslet (who is very good). While it was interesting to watch it in the same year as I’d seen One Life and Civil War, I would emphasise that it’s about the impact of trauma (it has a 15 certificate in the UK), and even though I knew that going in, I was probably in too raw a state for it. Much is made of truth-telling in this movie (yes, especially in news!), but you are allowed to want your entertainment to provide you with bright, sparkly things on a Saturday too.

( Read more... )

I took the chance (like a lot of other people at the screening I was at) to see The Batman in the cinema a few days ago. (Though I rolled my eyes at the people who were so late they came in after it had started and they annoyingly had to switch the lights on on their cameras because the film had started because they were so late.) I’ve watched it before, but on Blu-Ray (and relied on audio description then. I could see it better now and on a big screen, and I think I followed some details better from having ‘watched’ it before, (although it was interesting that some things hadn’t left a deep impression on me.) I think it’s fairly well done, but definitely too long.

( Read more... )

So, a month topped and tailed with movies about the price of revenge/vengeance, (sandwiching a film about trauma from a female gaze.) Oh, and what they all had in common was that I didn't particularly want to see any of the upcoming films featured in the trailers section.

I went to see Inside Out 2 with tempered expectations, and as everyone has said, while it’s not as good as the original, it’s well worth seeing. ( Read more... )

I caught a cold in July and my cough hung around, so I didn’t go to the cinema all month. So, it was in August that I went to see Twisters. ( minor spoilers. Also, I enjoyed it for what it was. )

I’ve also finally seen Past Lives on DVD and thought it very, very good (a brilliant debut by Celine Song) with very specific and thus universal things to say about identity. And so beautifully shot!

I went to see Widow Clicquot, which was almost exactly the film I thought it would be from the trailer. That’s not a criticism, per se. ( Read more... )

It almost looked as though I wouldn’t go to the cinema at all in May. There were a couple of films that I might have gone to see if they hadn’t been released in an inconvenient week, and I had intended to go see Dune part 2 again, but mistimed it.

But I sneaked in The Beast. ( Read more... )

In under 24 hours, I went to see Hit Man, ( Read more... )

It took me a few more days to see Slow, ( Read more... )

Should be noted that the three films (which I saw in a week) were all rated 15 and focused on a central male-female relationship. The audiences varied from four to about twenty, FWIW, given that there’s an anguished debate about cinema audience figures.

Civil War ( Read more... )

Back To Black ( Read more... )

Dune – part 2 - ( Read more... )

American Fiction – I would totally have gone to see this in the cinema based on the trailer and award buzz, but it was pulled from local cinemas after one week, which happened to be an inconvenient week for going to the cinema for me. So, I was pleased it was available on Prime straight after the Oscars (which tells you something about cinema’s problem these days.) ( Read more... )

Road House – again, I would totally have gone to see this in the cinema because of the trailer, knowing it was directed by Doug Liman, Jake Gyllenhaal was in it and the premise. ( Read more... )

I’ll also shout out The Vast of Night, a low-budget science fiction movie that went direct to streaming a few years ago. It was recced to me, and if you want to see a movie that has interesting things to say about storytelling, two rootable, rounded nerds who were into the tech of their time, it’s well worth 90 minutes or so.

[Lightly edited 30/12/24.]

Because I’m doing this (posting monthly about what movies I’ve seen) this year apparently:

( Dune part 1 )

( Argylle )

Three weeks into the new year and, huh, I’ve been to the cinema to see four movies. It looks as though like I might manage to achieve my resolution to go to the cinema more in 2024 than I did in 2023.

The Boy and the Heron. ( Read more... )

Priscilla. ( Read more... ).

One Life. ( Read more... )

I also watched Role Play on streaming (Amazon Prime). ( Read more... )

The End We Start From. ( Read more... )

[Edited for typos 30/12/24.]

I have been to the cinema again! (It’s still a bit of a novelty.) I went to see The Creator by Gareth Edwards, who I know from Monsters, which I love, and this shares the CGI meets real locations DNA of that film, although it’s not as good. (The movie, I mean, the FX are great.) It kind of worked for me emotionally, eventually, but the more you think about it, the more it falls apart. Even while watching it, I was side-eyeing the hero and the male POV, quibbling about scientific parameters, finding where it eventually landed with its ‘goodies’ and baddies’ snarkworthy. Much has been made of it being original (i.e. not an adaptation or part of a franchise), but there’s a long list of clear influences. The acting is good – John David Washington sounding like his father, Gemma ‘Humans was an audition’ Chan, Allison Janney! Young Madeline Yuna Voyles is terrific. I was glad I experienced it on the big screen, though.

The Wheel of Time - 1.6 The Flame of Tar Valon

( Read more... )

I’m a degree less excited about James Gunn’s new role with the DCU after watching this. How did he and the suits miss the fact that it should have been a Harley Quinn movie, especially after the best sequence in the whole film involves her ( Cut for spoilers. Instead we get a slightly different flavour of the amoral sludge that was Suicide Squad. It leaned more into the weird and tried to be funnier, but I mainly thought Guardians of the Galaxy is better and at least I didn’t make the effort of going to the cinema to see this. But I have a new ship, apparently. )

I went to see Barbie last week, and I’ve been finding it a bit difficult to capture what I want to say about it, when so much has been said by others already. I really enjoyed it, myself (there are musical numbers! I was reminded of MGM musicals early on!! Ryan Gosling made me laugh a lot!!!) I’m less interested in what male film critics have to say about this film than usual, even ones I rate, because I don’t think they’ll have the same sense of recognition of some of what’s on the screen. The auditorium was packed and overwhelmingly female. Some of the younger girls there are going to keep finding things that they didn’t get this time when they watch it again.

Margot Robbie has to be the film’s beating heart (such huge respect for her as producer.) ( spoiler?? ) I enjoyed the moments of tenderness among the satire and silliness. This is a film that remembers how girls played. I had one Barbie and she probably did end up in a Weird Barbie state, while I think Sindy probably influenced my ideas of beauty, especially in the face, more, but it was the fact that I couldn’t get a doll of Amy from A-Team and had to make do with a Hannibal one that may have been the most telling doll incident from my childhood.

Oh, and as I really wanted to see this from when the trailer first dropped, but was doubtful I could go and see it at the cinema for Reasons, I was really chuffed that I could.

Oops, I didn’t mean for it to take me so long to post. I’ll probably overcompensate this weekend. On Wednesday night, I went to see Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 (or ‘the Mission Impossible movie’) and it’s worth seeing on the big screen simply for the excellent stunts. The rest of the film is entertaining, but it’s not as good as Fallout.

( Spoilers )

Current Music: Alt-J @ Glastonbury on the TV

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 was the first film I went to see in the cinema after three years and change (due to caution because of COVID and vision issues,) and I’m glad. ( Positive review with spoilers ) I’d say it’s not worth staying after the mid credits scene for the post-credits one, but apparently Star Lord will be back. I like Pratt’s Peter Quill fine, but I love the weird space setting of GatG more.

Entries tagged with my movie reviews

Navigation

Movies watched in May

Thunderbolts*

Movies I saw in March '25

Movies watched in February 2025

Bridget Jones and this Cinematic Weekend

Movies seen in January 2025

Downton Abbey: A New Era

Movies I saw in November

Movies seen in September '24

Movies seen over summer '24

Movies I saw in May and the start of June ‘24

Movies seen in April '24

Movies seen in March '24

Movies seen in February '24

Movies already seen in 2024

A sci-fi movie and fantasy TV

A brief take on The Suicide Squad

plastic fantastic

should you choose to accept it

A movie review (GotG 3)

Profile

June 2025

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags