A Mistake

This review may contain spoilers!

 

A Mistake is an adaptation of Carl Shuker's novel of the same name, in which surgeon Liz Taylor comes under scrutiny for alleged medical malpractice. After a sepsis patient Liz was operating on dies to her infection, focus begins to draw to the surgery in which a mistake happened during the operation.

 

This is a very compelling drama, the sort of topic that if you don't have a lot of knowledge on, really makes you yearn to discover a bit more around medical practice. Yet, while the film touts some weighty themes, I found myself personally most invested in the story of Liz Taylor and the downward descent she finds herself upon. Liz is a powerhouse figure when first we meet her, a dominant presence in the operating theory and entirely confident in herself. We note some early points of weakness in her character, she is very arrogant which leads to her pushing her registrar to make an insertion he is unprepared for, and Liz isn't naturally empathetic with her patients and their families. The fallout of her patient's death results in Liz bumbling the post-mortem sit down with the family, leading to her name being dragged through the papers and the hospital itself coming under fire. From here her life only spirals as she is faced with increased monitoring of her surgery results, suspension of her ability to practise, a mite infestation in her home, her girlfriend leaving her and multiple deaths resulting from this fallout. Liz really gets broken throughout this piece and watching her take the broken pieces, acknowledge her blame and fight for others ultimately is a very satisfying character arc to watch.

 

Frank Ilfman's morose score perfectly represents the descent into despair this film takes us on, it's a very sombre piece of music that filters in nicely throughout this grey visual.

 

Simon McBurney, who played Andrew McGrath, is a bit of a moustache twirling antagonist, but he works so neatly for it; McBurney revels in being the bully to Banks all film long. Mickey Sumner, who played Robin, feels quietly exciting and intoxicating, which shows why Banks is so captivated with her; it was nice to see Sumner's own crisis of conscience in staying with Banks during the events of the film. Joel Tobeck, who played Alistair, is a pretty gruff and ready leader of the hospital; Tobeck exudes the management role very well, and he connects neatly with Banks in their first scene. Richard Crouchley, who played Richard, is a very meek and earnest character who desires to do the best; watching Crouchley take his character on a very depressive spiral is arresting to watch. Niwa Whatuira, who played the Bio Ethicist, is a very calculating and hard to like character at times; there's a degree of cold indifference to Whatuira which makes him an incredible on-screen rival for Banks.

 

However, the best performance came from Elizabeth Banks, who played Liz Taylor. This role is a real hardass at times, she can be impassive and wields her intellect like a weapon and a status symbol. Yet, it's clear within this performance that attitude is earned, it comes from skill and hard work well performed. Banks plays the theatre scene in which the operation goes wrong really well, from an arrogant outburst to a laser-like and driven focus. This whole film we see the hard fighter she is within her workplace and outside that space, the way she is emotionally drained or beaten up by those events. I loved seeing how distanced she comes across even in her closest relationships with her girlfriend or sister. The scene in which she has to put down her sister's dog is one of the saddest things you'll see in this film, rivalled closely by her being the first responder to a suicide. Liz Taylor is a strong and impressive role that goes on a wonderful character arc, brought to life by Elizabeth Banks. It's almost enough to excuse the questionable Kiwi accent.

 

A Mistake grapples with some pretty big themes of medical ethics and accountability. It frames a surgery for a sepsis patient in which three incisions and insertions have to be made. Liz takes the first and performs the third incision, but goads her registrar into making the final insertion. He does and fails, leading to damage within the organs; Taylor fixes this and the patient later dies of her infection. The whole film then descends into questioning whether Liz is right about the surgery not being the cause of death, also pondering if that patient should be held against her morbidity stats even though the patient was likely to pass. The film gets lost down the road about how to talk to families about these events and what good accountability looks like in the medical field. The film even asks if we should be tracking and releasing success and morbidity data for each practising surgeon, or if this will just drive good doctors out of work. The whole film is riddled with moral questions, often very precise for the medical profession, but it doesn't have the surety to answer them. Often the film pushes an idea back and forth a little and then events just progress. A Mistake is very tentative around taking a stance at the best of times. This is also a sluggish film, it isn't in any hurry to reach conclusions or dramatic heights despite the nature of the events in the film.

 

The design of this film tries to get creative without much to work with at times, but overall the film is a drab, grey, lifeless thing. There doesn't seem to be much insight into how to draw effective visuals from a bland fake hospital, the Auckland CBD or a basic house set. Overall, the film is edited and coloured to be slow and dull.

 

Fern Sutherland, who played Jessica, is a hard sell as Banks' sister; the pair don't really have much chemistry, even in their big emotional character moment of the film. Rena Owen and Matthew Sunderland, who played Tessa and Owen respectively, are almost cartoonish and over the top in their portrayal of grief; it's an embarrassing contrast to some of the dramatic performers in the same scenes as them. 

In spite of a brilliant cast, this is a film lost in its own complex themes and washed out colour palette. I would give A Mistake a 5.5/10.

Joker: Folie à Deux

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Joker: Folie à Deux is the sequel to 2019's Joker, set only a short time later as the now incarcerated Arthur Fleck has to deal with the looming court battle around whether he will live or die. As the court case draws ever closer, Arthur becomes entangled with another Arkham Asylum inmate, Lee Quinzel. Now that this chaotic duo are united, will Lee bring forth the Joker persona once more to reign terror upon Gotham?

 

The thing I found much easier about this film as a sequel was that I could let go of my misgivings about how this character was used, and if Arthur could really be considered 'Joker'. I acknowledged Todd Phillips was running his own tale, and it just was tied up in branding to get that extra backing. So I found myself a bit more invested in Arthur Fleck and the consequences of his actions from the first film. In fact, some of the very best scenes for me are when Arthur has to confront the horrors of what he has just recently done or experienced; moments like the psych evaluation scene early on were really evocative. But the best scenes were the character witness ones in the trials, particularly that of Gary Puddles. To see the real life horror experienced by someone Joker spared and how he can't reconcile that moment within himself was perhaps the most moving instance of the feature.

 

Todd Phillips' bleak style gets to be tampered with here, he bleeds in the colour of performance musical acts and blends it into the morbid palette of his Gotham. I'm also pleased to hear the original score, that oppressive warble that holds our characters' prisoner in a sort of despair.

 

Brendan Gleeson, who played Jackie Sullivan, is quite grounded as the bully guard who charms and manipulates his prisoners/power; Gleeson can go from moments of being amiable to sudden explosive fits of violence. Zazie Beetz, who played Sophie Dumond, is only back for a scene but it reminds you why she served so well in the first film; Beetz's role comes across as hardened by the events she survived in the original feature. Steve Coogan, who played Paddy Meyers, feels like a real hard hitting tv journalist; Coogan is very shrewd and calculated in his scene with Phoenix and the pair verbally spar quite well. Leigh Gill, who played Gary Puddles, is a role that rivals for the best performance of the feature; the grief and trauma Gill acts out in the wake of surviving a Joker attack is gripping.

 

However, the best performance came from Joaquin Phoenix, who played Arthur Fleck. I didn't really enjoy Phoenix in the first film, it felt like he was measuring up to the role and pushing some weird behavioural choices for the character. The sequel seems to have drawn new life from Phoenix, he's a bit more relaxed and aloof in the role, which is quite freeing. Fleck seems impassive when we reconnect with him, he's found a blank middle where he doesn't have to be Joker to survive. Watching Phoenix split and break his role as he pantomimes the character's dead mother is a bleak peak into his mind. The revelry and wonder he portrays when he first encounters Lee (Gaga) is a moment of fantasy that builds and pours through the whole narrative. I loved seeing Phoenix ham it up in the Joker persona, building to the chaos we all expect. It was equally interesting watching that dismantle within him, as he loses the ability to be the killer everyone expects of him. It's a gentler, more vulnerable Arthur, but one who wouldn't be this well-defined without all the history of the first film.

 

Joker: Folie à Deux is often a poor sequel, but it started out on shaky foundations. This film is a constant reminder that we're watching Todd Phillips' Arthur Fleck, anything resembling Joker is a bad costume and clown make-up. The idea that the film ignites by a sort of manipulated love story, in which Lee and Arthur push each other to the extremes of chaos in order to reignite the Joker persona, is a bit absurd. It feels like another expected moment, the two wild crazy loners ignite their worst selves together, we've had the Joker and Harley Quinn relationship painted up and glamorised weakly before. Another time feels excessive. It becomes hard to account for Lee, the why of her is pretty underwhelming, and it doesn't drive the story in any new unexpected direction. Ultimately, the film becomes Arthur pining for a romance that feels poorly earned through transportative musical fantasies. The musical genre elements of the film are poorly constructed and fail to blend well with the fantasies seen in the original Joker. Overall, this film puts a lot of emphasis on the flashy storyline, Joker getting romantic but fails to have much fun with what could have been that boiling pot court drama. The conclusion of this film does what every Joker story knows how to do; gently reminds us the Joker is entirely replaceable and the guy we've been following for two films couldn't live up to the idea forever. It's a cop out move, and it undercuts a lot of the work trying to make this a long form, engaging Joker narrative. The film also crudely inserts a prison rape scene for no reason than to show brutality. The Joker films are edgy and dark, but the purpose behind them is often very shallow.

 

I was entirely put to sleep by the pacing on this feature, the editing was sluggish and often lingered past the point it needed to. Worse than that was the soundtrack and musical numbers of the film. The covers chosen were a very jumbled mish mash that had not so subtle links to Joker motifs. While Lady Gaga sung well for most of her songs, the numbers themselves weren't very inspired, while Phoenix underperformed quite notably in the singing component.

 

Lady Gaga, who played Lee Quinzel, has been on a real rough streak with roles of late; there is just no emotion behind her line delivery in this one, and it makes for an uninteresting lead. Catherine Keener, who played MaryAnne Stewart, was quite a generic lawyer role that made little impression; Keener just didn't define her role's feelings nor engaged with other characters much beyond a surface level. Harry Lawtey, who played Harvey Dent, might be one of the worst on-screen depictions of Dent we'll ever have; Lawtey's prosecutor tends to drone and lacks any kind of charisma.

 

A fitting end to one of the worst written Jokers for the screen, maybe now we'll finally stop chasing Heath Ledger's shadow. I would give Joker: Folie à Deux a 3.5/10.

The Wild Robot

This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Wild Robot is an adaptation of Peter Brown's book of the same name, in which a service robot called Roz winds up shipwrecked on a wild island. Roz has to learn to find her place on this strange island, make friends with the local wildlife and raise a young gosling. 

I used to love Dreamworks quite a bit growing up, they had some classic features that stood out in the animated film industry. The past few years have seen some less desirable new entries, including a range of sequels that felt unnecessary. So when I tell you that The Wild Robot is Dreamworks not only at its very best, but making something that is in my opinion a bit of a masterpiece - just know that I'm doing my best not to exaggerate. This film is a beautiful story about a stranger outside their element. Roz is a service android, tailored to perform the needs of human owners and built for civilisation. She isn't really built for the wild 'fight to survive' nature of the island she is stranded upon. However, when she breaks protocol to learn the language of the animals, tries to work with them and even raises Brightbill after accidentally causing the death of his family, she becomes a part of this wild community of critters. The scene in which she saves all the creatures of the island from the harsh winter and creates a truce in her hut is one of my favourite moments in the film. I also think there's quite a beautiful story here around being a mother and learning how to be. Roz is quite impassive as a service android initially and learns how to raise Brightbill; but more than this she learns how to love the young gosling who is her son. She develops an unconditional sort of love that places the gosling before her own needs, very literally in some scenes, and it becomes this incredible metaphor for motherhood. There's another great theme here around nature vs. artificial; the technical world versus the natural one. Roz has to reorient herself and learn many more lessons than she is inbuilt with to function at the island. When Vontra invades later we see the uncaring carnage unleashed by the machines, which contrasts with the island itself where death occurs as a way of the cycle of life, but it is otherwise a community holding itself together.

The animation for this film is beautiful, certainly some of my favourite in a recent Dreamworks film. There is a lot of emphasis on mapping a beautiful landscape on the island; from the gorgeous crashing waves, the dominant presence of snow, a wall of butterflies or even the dangling ever-present vines, this is a film with some exceptional and excellent scenery. The character designs are very cool too; all the animals have such personality blended into their design, and the light work used with Roz is dazzling. The score for the film is quite compelling, with some very emotional points woven in there. I also have to shout out, 'Kiss the Sky' by Maren Morris, a wonderfully uplifting track that tracks the journey of Brightbill coming to fly confidently thanks to Roz and the wild island community.

 

Pedro Pascal, who voiced Fink, is in a new favourite role immediately with this sly fox; I like the storyteller quality of this character and how Pascal so beautifully depicted it. Kit Connor, who voiced Brightbill, is one of those plucky and earnest roles and fits neatly into the film; Connor takes Brightbill on a great journey from being the odd one out to a leader amongst the geese. Bill Nighy, who voiced Longneck, is such a great leader figure in this; Nighy just feels innately kind and has this role that just uplifts others. Stephanie Hsu, who voiced Vontra, is very sickly sweet while also being pretty ruthless as an antagonist; weirdly close to her sound in Everything Everywhere All At Once at times. Matt Berry, who voiced Paddler, is hilarious as this cranky super-serious beaver; Berry was one of my favourite comedic points in the film, and he also delivered a role you'd fall in love with. Ving Rhames, who voiced Thunderbolt, just sounds powerful in this; Rhames has the presence to embody one of the most formidable fliers on the wild island. Mark Hamill, who voiced Thorn, is a bit of a surprise voice but one I really liked; Hamill as the big and gruff peace-making bear is a nice point in the film. Catherine O'Hara, who voiced Pinktail, is one of the funniest performers I've been watching this year; her less than conventional mother role in this led to some hilarious scenes.

However, the best performance came from Lupita Nyong'o, who voiced Roz. This has been a phenomenal year for Nyong'o, with this incredible voice work paired with an unmatched performance in A Quiet Place: Day One, she has been on her A game. This film sees Nyong'o's delivery start as very light, with a lean towards a monotonous cadence. Yet she does such a good job of transitioning her character into something much greater. We start seeing these more emotional inflections, we hear her starting to feel love or worry for another, or even pleading peace amongst the critters. Roz is a beautiful character because her role is learning to feel emotions so that she can become something truly good for the wild island. It's a very sweet role, a fascinating protagonist and some great work by Nyong'o.

There are a lot of times when this film is quite comfortable in taking it slow, making the moments of just living on the island drag out at points. I also think it would have been nice to sit with a couple of the side characters a little longer just to make those connections stronger for the audience. Vontra was a great antagonist, but the big action moment with all the bad robots invading the island felt a bit generic after such an otherwise evenly-paced and gentle tone film.

 

The Wild Robot is currently my top animated film for 2024, and it is a hard one to beat. I would give The Wild Robot an 8.5/10.

The Substance

This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Substance is a body horror film about former movie/TV icon, Elisabeth Sparkles. When Elisabeth is informed that her show is due to be cancelled and her star has fallen, she turns to mysterious science to reclaim the limelight. Enter The Substance, an underground pharmaceutical regimen that creates a younger duplicate of the host, or Matrix. So when Sue springs forth from Elisabeth, the chance for fame comes to life once more...if the pair can keep the balance and act as one.

 

This film really does not hold back the punches, the moment we open with a major TV network executive called Harvey, you know this is a film that is going to go for the jugular thematically. What I admire so much about The Substance is that it actually has quite a lot to say around women in Hollywood, female body image, generational relationships and the dangers/pressures of beauty modification. This film follows an actress who is an award winner, once a film actress, who now does an exercise show for television. When a male producer slams her age and appearance, slating these points as dismissive reasons for her show's cancellation, it creates a spiral that leads to a hunger for the height of fame once more. The film is really pointed about how Hollywood discards women after a certain age and chases after younger actresses in a very predatory manner. There are also strong swipes at the way a woman is expected to look and the perceptions of success and desire that come with it. The dual nature of Elisabeth and Sue is interesting; it discusses woman to woman generational relationships quite well. Elisabeth yearns to be what Sue currently is, but despises that she gets all the glamour while Elisabeth continues to decay and fade. Sue on the other end is disgusted by Elisabeth and dismisses her, only truly missing her point of origin after Elisabeth is gone. The significant thing about a film called The Substance is a commentary on beauty being attained unnaturally, a little science versus nature if you will. The Substance is easy to abuse, and it consumes those who take it; in a modern age of surgeries and Ozempic the running commentary here feels very relevant.

The style for The Substance is a tough watch at times but incredibly striking. Wide shots stretch out the perspective of long corridors, cameras turn unsteady the moment a character breaks into rushed movement and we get these unsettling close-ups that show the gruesome truth behind many characters and their actions, for example Harvey's shrimp eating methods. The editing is really slick, often travelling through a scene at a smooth pace that makes the pacing never once drop tempo. There isn't much of a score, but the central theme is eerie, a bit retrograde and entirely fitting for this grounded sci-fi horror.

 

Margaret Qualley, who played Sue, is dazzling in this rising star role; Qualley has a mean or even selfish streak here that marks her as antagonistic towards her older protagonist. Demi Moore, who played Elisabeth Sparkle, is so charismatic and likeable in this that it is hard to see her role fall so far; Moore's wild moods at feeling passed over and then later used are gripping to watch.

However, the best performance came from Dennis Quaid, who played Harvey. This is a really truly repugnant role at any given moment, a clear Harvey Weinstein sit-in/parody. From the moment Quaid first walks into frame to piss at a urinal, it is clear this TV executive is wound up and cantankerous. He holds little regard for those who work for him and holds a tight grasp over his stars. Quaid's disgusting monologue about what happens to women in Hollywood as they get older is gross but rings sincere to the male-led industry. I also found his hunger for barely legal young talent to be terrifying at times and a spotlight on another, more predatory side of Hollywood that likes to rear its head. Quaid can be quite light and silly at times, playful in a manner that seems random and dangerous because you're waiting for that exploitative exec to emerge again. I hated Harvey, but I loved every scene with Dennis Quaid in it.

The Substance is a strange film for me, technically, at every point it holds something that makes it quite good. But for half the film I wanted to leave, I wanted to run and forget all about it. I've watched some horror that I've really loved despite it pushing my comfort levels before, but this just felt like it wanted to push the envelope more than it wanted to sell the story by the end. The conclusion of the feature is grotesque, it revels in being fleshy body horror pornography at times. It had said a lot of what it needed to say and so prioritised the angle it had steadily been leaning more and more into: the monstrous. Making this film such a display of gross prosthetics and repugnant creature make-up just felt like the film was milking the discomfort angle to drive a point home that had already made itself known. I couldn't sit in the theatre by the end feeling like I had watched something entirely good because it wanted me to look away, which is a real failure for a piece of visual art.

An absolute grotesquerie of a film that I wanted to flee from at times, in spite of some very impressive themes and design. I would give The Substance a 6.5/10.

Transformers One

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Transformers One is an animated prequel following Orion Pax (Optimus Prime) and D-16 (Megatron), miner bot friends who spend their days digging for Energon. Orion Pax is relentless in his search for the missing Matrix of Leadership, which will allow the planet of Cybertron to return to its former glory. However, none of the Transformers are prepared for the dark truth surrounding their home.

 

The story at hand here is quite fun and really welcoming for new fans, while also having some cool surprises for classic Transformers fans. It was fresh to place the story with a much younger Optimus and Megatron, who have a long way to journey to the figures we know and love/hate. Watching Orion as this young, hot-headed champion for the people sets him up nicely for an arc about learning what it takes to be a leader. Orion moves through this film in a manner motivated by being good and acting for others. In a neat contrast, D-16 is happy in his life, content with living under the rule of his hero: Sentinel Prime. However, D-16 is confronted with some dark truths that lead him down a darker path of hurt and betrayal; by the end of the film, he can't align himself with the Cybertron that exists around him. Linking the origin of Orion and D-16 so neatly, in a way that forces you to see a dear friendship crumble is heartbreaking and satisfying. It was also extremely satisfying to see a feature set on Cybertron, an element fans have been dying to see on the big screen for a long time.

This film does for Transformers what Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse did for Spider-Man, entirely revitalises how the audience engages with the characters they know and love through the eyes of animation. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoy the designs of the characters, they are very expressive and have a lot of fluid movement for robots. I thought the way this film captured action was incredible; the final fight scene has so many incredible elements in any given frame that really sets some high stakes and puts some major blockbusters to shame. Likewise, I loved the variation in animated figures and settings in the major race scene. Yet, what really stood out for me was how the surface of Cybertron was designed; the moving landscape and the technological/biological blending was gorgeous. The hard work to make one of the finer looking features for animation in 2024 is only complemented by Brian Tyler's excellent score; the music here is adventurous and bold. The tracks in this film take you on a dramatic journey few Transformers films have previously achieved.

 

Brian Tyree Henry, who voiced D-16, really gives his all in this and marks an exceptional turn to villainy; the descent from mild good nature into bouts of uncontrollable rage are impressive to say the least. Steve Buscemi, who voiced Starscream, is an inspired point of casting; Buscemi really nails the power-hungry wheedling voice of the future Decepticon. Laurence Fishburne, who voiced Alpha Trion, invokes that ancient wisdom and strength of a Prime; Fishburne really comes off as this monolithic presence who once stood at the top of Cybertron as a great leader. Jon Hamm, who voiced Sentinel Prime, is quite a charismatic and inspiring leader figure at first pass; yet it is a lot of fun when Hamm gets to turn towards a smug and vicious antagonist. Vanessa Liguori, who voiced Airachnid, is quite creepy as the secondary antagonist of the film; Liguori's voice makes Airachnid innately scary and intimidating.

 

However, the best performance came from Chris Hemsworth, who voiced Orion Pax. I'll freely admit I had my doubts about Hemsworth, I really didn't think he could step into Peter Cullen's shoes at all. But from the start, Hemsworth defines this performance as being a little different; Orion sounds more youthful and a bit fresher in his years. This is a character who gets up to trouble and has to swerve his way out of it through quick talking and pleas. Orion is so passionate and earnest about the future of his people, he wants more than just mine work for all bots. Seeing Hemsworth present Orion as someone who believes in an idea to someone who leads people through his morals and ideas is quite compelling. The hurt and betrayal in the final act towards Megatron is a very impressive feat from Hemsworth and Tyree Henry both. I also really felt those final couple of scenes solidified Hemsworth's voice work, it felt like that point of transition from Pax to Prime happened perfectly. 

This film starts a little sloppy, it seems unsure if it wants to present a dramatic fun animated story or if it wants to really dumb it down for the younger audience. There are so many moments in which we have some goofy gag or a run of not super funny jokes because the film feels the need to play things safe. I really think D-16's tilt into antagonist comes very fast, the moment he gets his cog we get some very extreme behaviour shifts and I don't think that turn was worked on hard enough. Likewise, the bond between Orion and D-16 can be pushed back into the focal point quite abruptly sometimes, just to really drum home the eventual betrayal for the audience. It feels a little heavy-handed and obvious in places. The points of exposition and world building got excessive in places too, it was difficult to juggle the various ancient Primes, alongside invading species or mysterious planetary entities.

Scarlett Johansson, who played Elita-1, is quite a grating voice that doesn't sit well in the main cast; I found Elita-1 to be an annoying presence with little reason to partner in with the rest of the protagonists. Keegan-Michael Key, who voiced B-127, doesn't really do anything to play a character; it just feels like Key riffing some average comedic dialogue in his usual voice.

Animation finds the key and opens the door for a new era of Transformers in film. I would give Transformers One an 8/10.

Speak No Evil

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Speak No Evil is an American adaptation of Christian Tafdrup's acclaimed 2022 film of the same name. In this thriller we are introduced to two families on a holiday in Italy who bond; one is an American family migrated to London experiencing hard times while the other is an English family living in the West Country. After an invitation to stay out in the country, the Daltons discover their hosts don't entirely seem to be who they appear and a darker mystery lurks deep within the farmstead.

Psychological thriller is a type of genre dancing in the horror scene and absolutely dominating the genre right now, I was transfixed by this for almost the entire runtime. The film is a real steady burn, knowing how to make a mark with an introduction that presents all the elements in a simple and interesting way. The film then builds on this by enriching the details, taking us to a new setting that steadily gets worse or adding an element to the characters that makes them more difficult to trust as an audience. I actually admired this latter quality a lot because it wasn't limited to the antagonists, we learned the secret layers of our protagonists too which resulted in a real boiling pot of tension. As an audience member I was just waiting to see which secret was going to come to a head first. This approach also meant that the end result was characters I felt interested in but who weren't always pleasant, the good and evil wasn't two-dimensional and I admired that. This film was really founded on giving us a very realistic modern family dynamic, while also flaunting that the perfect nuclear family is a bit of a modern myth due to societal pressures. The incredible final act was a harrowing Home Alone of besieged home, determined killers, useless father figures and badass mums. I felt so satisfied watching that final conflict because it resolved a lot of those tense points of conflict set up earlier in the narrative.

This film is beautiful and the camera maximises some entirely stunning vistas in regards to on-location shooting. The film has these powerful establishing shots or wides that had me whispering "wow" under my breath. But I also loved the intense close or mid shots, especially the ones that played with shadow, flame and blood. The editing set a precise pace that helped the tension along, I felt that the visual language of the film moved neatly alongside the plot. The score was very unsettling, leaving me feeling those big scare or conflict moments. However, I also adored the soundtrack which was used to highlight beauty or even for an off-kilter sense of humour that worked very well for Speak No Evil (shout out 'Eternal Flame' by The Bangles!).

Mackenzie Davis, who played Louise Dalton, is quite a high maintenance and constantly concerned figure which made for a great modern Mum role; I also loved Davis' in the final act - her character came alive there. Scoot McNairy, who played Ben Dalton, isn't the role anyone is going to love from this but he did a great job; McNairy really presents a father who comes off as impotent and struggling to prove his worth to his wife and daughter. Aisling Franciosi, who played Ciara, is a really wild and exuberant role; I loved how Franciosi played against and matched McAvoy's character work. Alix West Lefler, who played Agnes Dalton, gives a very simple yet effective performance; this is a character living with anxiety and worry which shone through. Dan Hough, who played Ant, is one of the best child performances I've seen this year; Hough presents a child who is entirely tortured and haunted by his imprisonment in what is an incredibly well-layered performance.

However, the best performance came from James McAvoy, who played Paddy. I always feel like McAvoy goes all in for his roles and this one is no different. When we first meet Paddy he's a bit aloof, very cool and not the most conventional husband/father figure. This is the sort of man who plays things irresponsibly but does so in a manner that feels quite charismatic. However, as the film goes along we get to see that mask drop just a couple of times. We steadily see that his worldview is a little warped or that he teases his guests in quite a manipulative way. At the same time he does these heartfelt pleas, moments of earnestness that leave you wondering what he really intends. The way McAvoy plays against his hostage son, Hough, is the real element of tension that I just adored as it steadily ramped up to the final act. McAvoy's final primal hunter like presence in the final act sets him as one of my favourite antagonists from 2024 cinema.

As far as American adaptations go this is pretty good; the Danish translations aren't always a high point in the year. But this one moves in a way that shows quite a bit of regard for the original while doing it's own thing. However, I found the tilt from the second act into the final act a little long in the tooth. The antagonist family, namely Paddy, is allowed a bit too much time to grandstand and drag out the moment the Daltons are captured. Once the capture has happened the veil being dropped feels initially quite disappointing as it all becomes quite transactional and the killers goals feel simple. Worse than that, I found the killers motives to not really be very well explored by the end. The whole point seems to be that society made us this way and modern society allows monsters like this in, but I really felt like they could have gotten to what they really meant to say with a bit of work. 

Kris Hitchen, who played Mike, is a side character who gets too much room to play in the final act; Hitchen just seems like a cartoonish and silly additional henchman to our main antagonist.

 

I felt entirely tense the whole way through, worth every second of that steady build up. I would give Speak No Evil an 8/10.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

This review may contain spoilers!

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a sequel to the 1988 film, Beetlejuice, and reunites us with the Deetz family a couple of decades later. The death of Lydia's father prompts the reunion of three generations of Deetz in mourning and invites the return of an unsavoury Afterlife figure who has not moved on.

This felt like a complete send all the way back to the 80s. And not in a manner that left this film feeling outdated, but rather a complete love letter to a time when Tim Burton was riding high and knocking out some of his most memorable cinematic triumphs. This film is one of those incredibly tonal throwbacks, I felt like I was watching a film from another time polished with the scale of modern cinematic tech. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice takes the set-up from the first film and finds a neat comedic family angle to take us on the next adventure. We get to see a range of wild personalities in our living cast alone. Lydia is now using her otherworldly gifts for a psychic medium TV show, while also being manipulated by her toxic boyfriend: Rory. Lydia's father suddenly dying pushes her back into contact with her eccentric step-mother, Delia, and her estranged teen daughter, Astrid. The way this unusual family is pushed together, full of conflict and unresolved feelings makes for a great boiling pot. When Beetlejuice decides to pull Lydia back in and the same time Astrid finds a boyfriend, the plot really ramps up. I loved how this film had an engaging ticking time bomb that made it all feel quite urgent for the main cast. The Afterlife is even zanier, the novelty and clever gags are everywhere you look. The strength of this film is just how constantly funny it is, it really stands out as the sort of film that has considered comedic timing at every turn. Even the ultimate resolution to all the major conflicts are quite slapdash, spontaneous and fun. 

Tim Burton's style is woven all the way through this, and he has pulled out all the stops. The camera weaves and moves through alongside character performances, it is also well-utilised to punctuate all the visual gags scattered throughout. The special effects are impressive on a couple of levels. They look like the practically composed effects of the original film with only some polish to enhance how it all looks. The other component is the variety at hand; scenes like Delores stapling herself back together or the people being pulled into their cellphones really stood out for me as truly unique to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. The score for the film has that fun tone that is classic of old school family movies, but it has that Halloween seasonal twang which only enriches it. The soundtrack is an entire knock out, with various covers of 'MacArthur Park' really making the whole thing come alive.

 

Michael Keaton, who played Beetlejuice, feels like he has returned home when it comes to this role; Keaton's presence as Beetlejuice is uncanny, and it might just be one of the best roles in his career. Winona Ryder, who played Lydia Deetz, has really found a natural pathway to ageing up this role to estranged motherhood; Ryder is still playing a fighter who has had a lot of fight taken out of her by loss and crappy men over her fictional years. Jenna Ortega, who played Astrid Deetz, is a bit more of a classic protagonist well suited to the wild adventures of a Burton film; Ortega leans into the aloof loner who can't connect with her Mum quite well. Justin Theroux, who played Rory, was absolutely hilarious as one of the sleaziest roles in the film; Theroux as the not so subtle manipulative boyfriend wound up being a great gag. Willem Dafoe, who played Wolf Jackson, looks like he might be having the most fun out of the whole cast; Dafoe toes the thin line between deceased actor and afterlife cop in what is one of the biggest scene stealers of the film. Monica Bellucci, who played Delores, is like the anti-Beetlejuice; an imposing Afterlife threat you have reason to be terrified of. Santiago Cabrera, who played Richard, is the surprising heart connection of the film; Cabrera comes as a feel good moment uniting two of the protagonists for the better. Danny DeVito, who played the Janitor, is more of a tremendous creature performance in this; DeVito's lumbering ghoul is a fun scene and a memorable introduction to Bellucci.

However, the best performance came from Catherine O'Hara, who played Delia Deetz. This character feels like a total acknowledgement of O'Hara's work as Delia in the first film, paired with her iconic reputation from Schitt's Creek. Delia is a high maintenance artist, who delights in dumping both her boasts of high living and her trauma on those around her. Delia feels like a character who rarely reaches out to those she loves, yet she is oddly present for those she loves. Over the years this is a role who has surprisingly morphed into someone with a lot of heart, with an eccentric exterior. O'Hara is quite simply the funniest performer in a host of hilarious performers, I could watch a whole film of Delia and her art career, I really could.

This film is something I really needed, a comedic adventure that really had you laughing from start to finish. But a film like that still is guided by a story, and the overarching plot was great, but it was bogged down by a lot of individual character narratives feeding into it. Across this film, you have an incredibly large amount of sub-plots of varying length, with varying focus and importance to the overall experience. What disappoints me is that these plots aren't all very well fleshed out, and worse, most of them end quite abruptly or without much resolution at all. Some feel almost purposeless in their journey and feed the film with plenty of laughs, only to not end in a fully realised narrative manner.

Arthur Conti, who played Jeremy, is a bit of an obvious bad guy twist performance; Conti also doesn't feel like the most experienced hand and delivers in the same tone across the movie. Burn Gorman, who played Father Damien, feels like a dry piece of wit that just doesn't really land; Gorman's whole role feels a bit too present in this when really it didn't need to be more than a background figure.

What a treat to see Tim Burton back on top form and better than ever. I would give Beetlejuice Beetlejuice an 8/10.