Wild Horse Nine

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Wild Horse Nine follows CIA agents, Chris and Lee, as they vacation on Easter Island. Having recently set up a military coup in Chile, the pair now grapple with Chris' ailing health and his exit from the agency he has committed his life to.

If nothing else, watch this film because it is probably one of the last titanic performances we'll see from John Malkovich. He's irreplaceable in this, and he is acting leagues beyond anything you'd expect. At its core, Wild Horse Nine is about legacy, passing the torch, and the reconciliation of a life lived. The character of Chris is an older agent who has done a lot of wrong in the name of service to his country; he has destabilised numerous nations and was the principal assassin of John F. Kennedy. He is also an older man who forgets a lot and who is dying from the same cancer that killed his mother. He has no family that cares for him anymore, and the only person in the world that he shares a connection with is his fellow agent and friend, Lee (Rockwell). When we start, Chris is a bit psychotic, cantankerous and aloof. He openly throws protocol out the window, and it almost seems like he willfully enjoys antagonising those around him. But there's this incredible undercurrent of fear, penance and atonement from Malkovich across this whole film. He wants to see the big heads because that was the only thing he wanted to achieve before his death upon Easter Island. He documents his life, but he is always returning to thoughts about Heaven and who is actually allowed within. The way he tries to unspool years of misdeeds by finally speaking the truth of his work to Alicia, a young socialist Chilean student and then saving her life later on speaks to his desire for redemption. There's this beautiful scene where he finally speaks to his brother after years of silence; it's not a scene in which things are fixed but in which a beautiful goodbye is had by Malkovich and Tom Waits, who plays the brother role. Watching Chris end the film by sacrificing aspects of himself so that Lee's life might carry on is this painful, yet intimate moment of brotherhood that will leave you feeling a sincere note of grief this film works hard for.

Martin McDonagh is a storyteller who just knows how to hit some incredible notes. Wild Horse Nine has that beautiful focus on Chris, as I mentioned. It is undeniably a film about a man racing towards his death and finding beauty in the final moments. I loved seeing the wild horses of Easter Island presented as a response to Chris' internal struggle, resulting in what I thought was one of the saddest animal deaths of 2026 cinema. McDonagh also says a lot here about American autonomy beyond borders and the sort of hypocrisy and hubris that comes with it. Chris and Lee are killers at the end of the day. They operate on a leash that is held by MJ, played unswervingly by Steve Buscemi. There is a real ruthless quality here about tearing other nations apart; it's talked about casually like this is a Tuesday. It's almost staggeringly unhinged as real historical events are pointed at, moments where United States involvement has been documented. This film points out the nature of this in our history, in our current state of life. The way men like MJ, who teeter about on smack, hold so much power to dismantle entire nations. That agencies like this have run operations within their own borders too. It points to a darker side of American intelligence and security entities, while also making a mockery out of them. That latter point is significant, because there are instances where America has shattered something to no value for itself or even to its own harm. Wild Horse Nine is ready to show you a couple of bumbling idiots for you to laugh at, but you also can't forget that the guy making jokes about the big heads having hats is also the guy that just destabilised Chile.

Visually, this film is McDonagh on top form. The whole time on the island feels like this splendid place, while also feeling like a sort of purgatory. It's a setting that feels so vast, and yet it has rhythms of similarity that make you feel like this is a final waiting place. I also adored the inclusion of that grainier footage to stand in for the camera Rockwell is carrying along across the film. Seeing the final moments of Malkovich with the horses being caught from that lens in particular was just plain good visual storytelling. Wild Horse Nine just zips along too; for a movie that is so contemplative and steady, it is spectacularly well-paced. I found the score to be really melancholy; the soundtrack did some work to ground us in the setting. But there were a couple of tracks, 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' by Hank Williams and 'Both Sides Now' by Joni Mitchell, that just felt like such significant cornerstone pieces for the characters.

It's a really small cast, which works neatly for this. It's drawn out one of Malkovich's stronger performances in his career. Sam Rockwell is absolutely killing it in this; he's a charming hero you want to root for. Parker Posey, who plays Margie, really has a hilarious antagonistic edge to set off against Rockwell. While there isn't much to say about Mariana di Girolamo, her constant scene partner Ailin Salas really stands out. Salas is a figure of good who finds herself caught up in a darker world; watching her fight and escape is a shining light that really taps into a more noble quality of the Wild Horse Nine script. As always, I think it can be hard to find the rhythm amongst some characters that are tough to like; but McDonagh has always done that particular trick better than most.

Martin McDonagh continues to be one of my all-time favourite filmmakers, with another phenomenal big swing. I would give Wild Horse Nine a 9.5/10.

Primetime

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Primetime is a thriller biopic documenting the heyday of the reality TV show 'To Catch a Predator', starring Chris Hansen.

This is a pretty unflinching descent into the obscene, a world where the worst kind of crimes are caught and privatised for entertainment. At its core, Primetime points out that a production like this, in which a TV show had the means to capture sexual predators in real time, staggers belief. The whole conceit is that horrible sex offenders get catfished by the show, Chris Hansen shows up, reads them the riot act and then they are subsequently arrested. Watching the film posit the idea of responsibility here is interesting in two ways, the one avenue I felt was really well discussed was that these arrests and crimes were treated as entertainment spectacles. The film was constantly trying to up the ante, and the motivation was more around that 'primetime' slot for those on the show than it was to do with the justice they were delivering. There's a scene in which one of the Decoys (Phoebe Bridgers) nearly walks off the show when their official merch page starts selling thongs. It is this internal conflict the existence of the show generates that really had me hooked.

Where I think what this film had to say, and what I personally felt as a viewer diverged was on the subject of the morality of 'To Catch a Predator'. This film really graphically reminds you that these individuals are quite twisted and that their intention is to find underage people online and engage them in sex. It's pretty reprehensible stuff; there's a character who suggests to Hansen in the film that surely he would want to "bleed them". To which Chris suggests that what they do is perhaps worse. Which is quite a powerful and profound moment if the film is right there along with you, but this is a film so ready to talk every possible point of view that you can't help but feel a little disappointed with this thing thematically. There are a lot of scenes here that make you wonder why the film is trying to cast child predators in a more sympathetic light. When a District Attorney kills himself, and the show is subsequently ended, the only person painted in a damning light is Hansen and his producer. As if someone in an extreme position of power exploiting children should not feel the consequences of their own actions. Even earlier in the feature, when Chris Hansen is really falling prey to his ambition, we get this moment in which the child predator they 'catch' is a physically disabled man. The film plays this as uncomfortable or like a low point for the show, but knowing the crime this individual intended to commit didn't exactly make me want to feel the sympathy that the narrative was pushing so hard here.

Lance Oppenheim directs a film that feels positively psychedelic at times. Primetime is brimming with inventive frames that expose characters' internal struggle without needing a hint of dialogue to back it up. The way this whole thing is grounded in the age of 2000s TV while also feeling like it's on some kind of visual rollercoaster is quite impressive. I love how this movie was paced; everything felt really fluid and evenly paced. There is a big part of me that could not gel with just how oversaturated most shots had to be; that was where something really well caught could lose some appeal. The score also didn't really gel with me that much; it was a bit too lively and cartoonish for the subject matter at hand, although Phoebe Bridgers' 'On Video' rounding this thing out hit the right note.

A lot of what works for this film is Robert Pattinson playing Chris Hansen as this absolutely manic, insecure guy. This take on Hansen is a man who is fuelled by nothing more than his work; something that he treats as an almost higher calling. Pattinson taking Hansen and turning him into this damning figure, this perfectionist who is entirely relentless, makes Primetime the feat that it is. Although Pattinson is not the only performer taking a big swing here. Skyler Gisondo has found what might possibly be his best role to date in Dan Plum. Dan's storyline really exposed the long-lasting damage working on this show had to the cast and crew who were so wrapped up in it. Merritt Wever also deserves a shoutout for her incredible work battling it against Pattinson as his producer. While I had complicated feelings about this portrayal, Alex Winter actually took Bill Conradt to a very human place.

There were some performances that felt a bit more adrift here. Matthew Maher was playing Xavier Von Erck, who hunted the predators online for the show. I felt like Maher was in that part to present a sort of bumbling doofus, an eccentric oddball that was weirdly positioned to elicit laughter. Beyond Winter, none of the key predator performances mattered much. Revolori's intro scene could have been played by anyone, and Bob Ari's was a moral low for the film. Eric Rahill didn't really achieve anything as Dan's friend; he certainly didn't make Dan a more interesting character by having a presence. Casting Anna Faris as Pattinson's wife felt like one of the worst casting decisions here. Even odd Hollywood cameos like Jeff Zucker playing himself or filmmakers playing some of the captured predators really muddy what this film is trying to achieve.  

A highly stylistic venture that really grapples with its own moral compass. I would give Primetime a 7/10.

Klara and the Sun

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Klara and the Sun is an adaptation of the Kazuo Ishiguro novel of the same name. In this sci-fi tale, we follow Klara, an artificial friend who is bought and adopted by Josie and her mother. However, when Klara sees a new friend and home that is struggling more than it seems on the surface, she endeavours to help.

I felt quite torn about this film, particularly in the first half. This is a film brimming with dark themes through a light lens, which is so often Waititi's strength. His best feature, Jojo Rabbit, absolutely soared because it balanced this perfectly. From the outset, Klara and the Sun feels like something worth your curiosity merely due to Klara herself. This film has a brilliant lead in Jenna Ortega, and it is absolutely nothing without her at the centre. Klara is this being of pure radiant joy; her own naivety gives her an optimistic lens on the world around her. Things like the sun charge her, give life, and are therefore things she holds love for. Giant cleaning trucks or harvesters that spew smog into the air and blot out the sky draw a fearful reaction from her. Klara is built to find the beauty in life, in the world around her, and that's what she achieves. Her relationship with Josie is one that really challenges her and forces her worldview to become more complex. Yet ultimately, she inspires life and makes a choice that chooses humanity over the machine way of being.

Yet I really struggled with the delivery in this film. The way Klara and the Sun is presented to us felt like being a child having a picture book read aloud to you. It constantly just told you what to know and signposted a lot of the theme messaging. It was a story that didn't trust the viewer to be smart, and so it just gave a very simplistic narrative. I felt Klara and the Sun often held a lot of potential, but it might also have been limited by the very infantile viewpoint of the lead character in that respect. This film also suffers because it is meant to indicate that the nature of what Klara is here to heal is Josie. Yet, there's a point about halfway through the feature where Josie starts disappearing from the story substantially. This really means the film loses itself a lot; it's hard to feel the emotional weight of these connections and what they represent when you're only telling one half of the story. Josie's story also concludes when she rejects an artificial continuation of her life and instead chooses the people around her who love her. An aspect of this is around reconciliation with her Mum, which is a tough pill to swallow if you're actually watching this film. Mia Tharia is absolutely brilliant as Josie, who lives quite an embattled life. Josie's Mum, Chrissy, by contrast, is a pretty poor performance from Amy Adams. This character goes from markedly detached to making extremely problematic decisions around the future of her daughter's life. Watching Adams play against Steve Buscemi, talking about the opportunity of replacing human life, just felt like a low point that did nothing but bring certain characters down. The film kind of points at grief as a theme and says, "see? you understand." But it's actually quite a dark path. There's even an extreme moment of rage from Chrissy when she tries to strangle and drown Klara in a reservoir, and yet we're expected to view her as a redeemed figure by the end of the feature.

As is so often the case with a Waititi film, there is a decent stake in comedy. I really enjoyed the humour centred around Klara; she felt like a strong vehicle to provide a lighter touch to the feature. Some of the other artificial friends (Curnow and Greenwood) often felt like they were overselling their android roles and fishing for laughs. Performers like Rachel House, who regularly overlap with Waititi, are just the sort to really yank you out of a scene. Jesse Griffin, who played the Scarecrow, hits that sweet spot of an unconventional, humorous role with a dash of sadness that you buy into. That is sort of the point here; those characters with a bit of heart clearly shine through. Natasha Lyonne and Aran Murphy both play characters with chips on their respective shoulders about the state of the world but who nurture those they believe in.

I know that Taika Waititi can be capable of some really artistic cinema when he pours himself into it. There are flashes of that here, shots of the sun descending into its 'house', or the first couple of times we see Klara calibrate from her point of view. Even scattered moments in the soundtrack or Giacchino's beautiful, whimsical score awaken beauty in this feature. But a lot of this film is dialogue scenes or interior house shots, and it winds up looking remarkably plain. Watching Waititi go from beautiful exterior sequences to the most drib drab interiors really takes the visual intention of the film down a few notches.

Taika Waititi's mediocre ability as a film director continues. I would give Klara and the Sun a 4.5/10.

Wildwood

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Wildwood is a stop-motion animated film based on the Colin Meloy novel of the same name. It follows a young girl, Prue, who ventures into the Impassable Wilderness to rescue her baby brother after he is kidnapped by crows.

I love animated films; they are a medium that often shows tremendous artistry in cinema. There is often a real line between animated films that try for creativity and films that want to show a Minion for the sixteenth time. Wildwood is the sort of animated film that sits in a camp unto itself. It shatters any and all expectations and soars above into something awe-inspiring. For Laika Studios, this was a 16-year labour of love, with numerous stop-motion figurines and puppets delicately hand-crafted to give you a film experience unlike anything else you will see this year. In a world where faster 3D CG animation is the new norm, this is what animation as art truly looks like. The level of detail in the design is absolutely unreal, from facial expression movements, right through to multi-figure battlefield sequences that must've taken years and years. There are whole frames of this feature that I would quite comfortably say no other animated film has ever found the sort of beauty that could possibly compare. If you are a fan of animation alone, Wildwood isn't merely a good film to watch out for this year. This is a must-see.

But Wildwood isn't just a feast for the eyes; it is a beautiful story too. It makes me think of a fairy tale or folklore epic, a classic fantastical journey I would have read as a child. This film takes us to Portland, where it shows a tremendous love for the city and paints it as this charming cultural hub. Our protagonist is Prue, a young girl who is left responsible for her brother Mac one day while her parents are out. But after a supernatural flock of crows kidnaps her brother, she ventures into the Impassable Wilderness with her friend Curtis to rescue him. This character journey is a real odyssey into a fantastical world of talking creatures, living forest and magic. Prue must navigate the unusual factions in order to locate Mac, and along the way inspire the denizens of the Wood to join her in opposing the Dowager-Governess. Peyton Elizabeth Lee voices Prue, and it is one of those witty, charming, leading roles that really sets this world apart and makes you fall in love with what you're being presented. I loved the finer details of the world, with more passable sage wisdom from Prue's father (Johnson) contrasting with the conduit to this natural world in the mystics (Cardinal) or the solemn leadership of Owl Rex (Grant). There is a layer of charming comedy, from the more overt cowardly turncoat (Day) right through to the Governor and his aide vying for control (Clements and Jackson). While not every character threaded the same connection (such as Maya Erskine as the Mum, or Tom Waits as Maksim), all contributed to the tapestry that was this living world.

This film does have a lot to impart, which inevitably means the flaw of Wildwood can be a couple of slow pacing points due to exposition. But if you are prepared to be swept along and go with the current of the narrative, you are going to be rewarded for it. If nothing else, the absolute powerhouse musical score that accompanies Wildwood will take your hand and guide you through the wilderness itself. For my money, it's one of the best pieces of music in film this year.

Wildwood has so much to impart upon the audience. At its very core, there is a story here about grief, how all-consuming and divisive it can be. The main antagonist of the film, Alexandra (Mulligan), is a shell of herself that has become completely consumed by her own grief; it has become so destructive that the very wood has been torn apart. Watching her radicalise the coyotes and the crows against the very people who first had ownership of the woods brings forth an interesting parallel to other indifferent powers that have destroyed native land. Mahershala Ali and Amandla Stenberg really lead this subplot and give it a fierce, noble edge. Prue's journey is often about her having to claim responsibility and be her own hero, often moving past authority figures like her parents in order to save her baby brother. Across the film, characters like the majestic General (Bassett), gentle Septima (Awkwafina) or the Bandit King all fall or falter, leaving the duty to the younger heroes to save themselves and the wood. I loved that this was such a story of bravery discovered; there wasn't a magical switch that went off. These young heroes had to be guided to stand up for what they believe in. Curtis (Tremblay) goes from quite a cowardly place to someone who takes a life-altering step in order to save his friend Prue's life. This is the sort of writing that comes around so rarely, it feels entirely complete and fulfilled.

This is one of the greatest animated films I have seen in years. I would give Wildwood a 9.5/10.

Clayface

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Clayface adapts the comic book villain of the same name. In this body horror feature, actor Matt Hagan finds his life destroyed after he is mutilated by a Gotham gang. After opting into an experimental human drug trial, Hagan slowly faces the monster within as he embarks on a path of revenge.

I went into this film thinking to myself, "Who is actually out there asking for a Clayface movie?" I love when a movie then proceeds to turn around and really challenge my expectations. We have had a few comic book villain movies in recent years; pretty much all of them have been complete burners. Clayface manages to stand out from the crowd and achieve something really impressive. When we start the film, we meet Matt Hagan, a young actor on the cusp of great success. He has overcome his underdog roots and emerged as a real up-and-comer. Then he takes one poorly timed step off the path. He sleeps with a mobster's girlfriend and pays the price for a moment of hubris. Hagan's face is scarred beyond compare, and he is subsequently ruined financially. He grows wild, desperate for something to save him and latches on to Caitlyn, a scientist who is developing a restorative A.I. nanobot for body degenerative diseases. Hagan becomes obsessive, even as the treatments change him past the point of human. His very nature starts to shift, and his own sense of self becomes dependent on two things: his connection with Caitlyn and his drive for revenge upon those who ruined his life. Watching Matt give over to the changes, to hold power so that he can massacre his way through his enemies is gripping and horrifying. The line inevitably becomes blurred for him, and keeping Caitlyn is solved through violence in the same way that taking revenge is. Ultimately, Matt doesn't let the treatment save him; that isn't enough. He needs his rage to be sated, which inevitably gives him over to the monster.

Tom Rhys Harries is performing on another level with this role; it's going to be a real career-defining role for him. He has an easy-going, humble charisma to him when we first meet. But he strips Hagan back and really shows those moments of wild rage and desperation. What becomes fascinating is that as Hagan loses his sense of self, Harries really plays into that. Suddenly Matt Hagan feels like the performance, and the monster feels like the true thing. It's a shift that subtly transpires, but it really tilts the whole performance in such a fascinating way. I was also blown away by Naomi Ackie (as I so often am). She has her own role in shaping Mark into a monster. For the most part, she is a grounding force - an external conscience for Hagan to listen to and return to. But she is also an enabler; she is morbidly fascinated by the scope of her work and what it is doing to her subject. You watch it in one of the more unnerving scenes of the film in which she watches Matt shapeshift into her as he sleeps. The path to revenge yields some interesting characters for Matt Hagan to work through. David Dencik is perfect as a Gotham mob head; he has that ruthless edge down. But there's plenty of fun Gotham goons here; Squillino Jr. looks to be having the time of his life, almost as much as Rob Brydon's talk show host role. But I was perhaps most captured by what Joshua James brought to Corey, Hagan's best friend. Their arc goes from one of brotherhood to betrayal; it's one of the more tragic aspects of the film.

I don't think Clayface is always out here running perfectly; it does struggle with bridging between acts. The first act is rather condensed, and the descent into ruin has to happen rather quickly so that we can get onto the main event. But this capacity to gloss through things in the first act means we don't get to connect with Hagan as who he was for very long. It also means the film really airbrushes past Caitlyn's experimental science experiment, which sounds painfully made up in any scene that lingers on it for too long. Which bridges into the next flaw: Clayface can get a little cartoonish at times. There are some points where watching him kill one person at a time, sometimes with a lousy quip at hand, feels a bit grey in terms of tone. There will be a long sequence where he's comedically pretending to be a mobster, followed by a funny dance number that then crashes into a killing spree. The cohesion isn't always there. The payoff around seeing Hagan take on the Clayface form is also not really there; he's quite easily defeated, which takes a bit of bite out of the film itself. Giving us a bit more time with the monster wouldn't have hurt anything, but the film almost seems afraid of that scenario. This is also a real character actor film, which means there are some wider cast performances that don't really land. Carroll and Marsan serve as Hagan's talent management but often fall into the background; a particular waste of a performer like Marsan. Max Minghella really doesn't feel much like a cop, and his relationship with Ackie needed to be fleshed out. I also felt like Ribeiro was only really there to play the adultress, rarely actually having character moments that fleshed her out further.

James Watkins really worked to make a stylistic horror in a year that is already brimming with some horror heavy-hitters. The camera is a light presence at times, but it holds tight to Hagan and his transformation like an examiner's lens. I was most impressed by the blend of practical and visual effects that went into crafting the creature design. Watching the facial prosthetics that Harries had layered over him was brilliant, a real grotesque approach that led to me feeling transfixed by the screen. The moments where CGI was deployed for transformation were also well-balanced; the final form was quite a strong realistic take on the Clayface monster. The soundtrack has a bubbly, peppy vibe that felt like it was intended to contrast, but also sometimes confused the tone of the film. However, Bertelmann provides a chilling film score that cuts to the darker tone of Clayface nicely.

Probably the most ambitious thing out of DC since The Penguin miniseries. I would give Clayface a 7.5/10.

Whalefall

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Whalefall is a survival thriller based on the Daniel Kraus novel of the same name. In this feature, Jay sets out on a dive in the wake of his father's suicide. During this search for his father's remains, he is swallowed by a whale and must race against the clock to escape.

I really don't like not knowing what lies beneath the water; I've always struggled with the thought of diving. For that reason alone, I was entirely riveted by the intensity of the first half of this feature. Whalefall opens as a sort of foolhardy, personal mission. Jay is proving something not only to himself, but to the weighty ghost of his father. There is a moment there where you watch this character who has been terrorised by his Dad over the years, and you feel tremendous empathy for him. And then he is swallowed alive. Watching Austin Abrams give such a stellar physical performance in this is so pleasing; he has really flexed his potential this year. Jay is absolutely brutalised throughout this journey; watching him crushed and squished from within or burnt alive by stomach acid is a true horror unto itself. When this film chooses to run with Jay trying to save himself, being punished for it and persevering, that was when Whalefall had my attention entirely.

The real strength of this feature is the technical prowess that goes into it. Wētā Workshop took the lead on designing a mechanical whale interior that we exist within for most of the film. It is a horrible, claustrophobic space, in which the camera forces us to suffocate steadily with Jay. But it also tunnels closer, with intense close-ups that give us a direct line into Jay's mind as he faces this peril. I loved watching the beginnings of his dive; that initial wade out through the waves is a real work of art and transitions us neatly under the water. I thought the visual effects that were utilised served the film well. The exterior design of the whale, the shots of the squid and even the scale of the underwater sequences all looked quite impressive. I also thought the black and white design of the echolocation scene was an inspired choice. The score also managed to hold those moments of intensity with powerful streaks of melancholy.

While I really felt those moments where the film has you hoping for Jay, I also don't think the story of Whalefall is anything special. If anything, it holds quite a toxic message. Josh Brolin plays Mitt, Jay's father in the film, and he is absolutely the right kind of loose unit, martial, ill-equipped Dad you would expect. It's a really great performance, but it doesn't steer away from the nature of the script. Throughout the film, the pace of the feature is interrupted by a number of flashback sequences of Jay with his Dad. We are grounded very early on in a relationship dynamic that is unhealthy; Mitt wants Jay to be like him, and Jay wants to break free of his father. Mitt is often painted as inflicting volatile behaviour upon Jay, almost with a stronger intent, as Jay is his only son and that seems to put him on a pedestal for some reason. But as the film goes on and Jay uses the skills he learned from his Dad to survive, this results in an almost spiritual reconciliation between Jay and the memory of his father. The film almost pauses to say that Mitt was such a wild, aggressive, larger-than-life person that he was actually worth finding redemption in as a father. Jay's entire relationship with Mitt changes due to the events of the film, but I'm not sure survival capacity equates to years of abuse we were also shown being okay. Ultimately, it's for the audience to decide, but that was where it sat with me.

Whalefall is a real blocky piece of cinema, with the emotional bandwidth of two stocky men at a bar talking around their feelings. I mean, John Ortiz is only really here to tell Abrams to watch out for all the whales in the bay (should've spoken up, John!). But as an audience member, I often felt like I was being treated like I was an idiot by this film. I don't know if I really required the word methane said fifty times to spell out how Jay was finally going to escape. I enjoyed the struggle with the whale being a simple metaphor for Jay's struggle with his father. But watching Jay become delirious, and the whale actually taking on the voice of his Dad? That went quite far. It was also a block of dialogue I wish could have been scrubbed from the entire thing. Not only did it really mess with my immersion, but it didn't feel like a conversation these two characters had earned with one another. Listening to Mitt (as a whale now) ask his near-death son if he was straight or gay felt out of place, just as much as Whale Mitt apologising for never letting Jay have a dog. It's a film that often borders on the absurd, hasn't done enough legwork thematically to pretend to be as deep as it thinks it is and just expects you to really put your suspension of disbelief aside too frequently. Also, for a film with such a great range of talent in the actresses present (Shue, Levy and Rudd), it completely squandered them.

It might be a technical feat of a feature, but the story leaves a lot to be desired. I would give Whalefall a 5.5/10.

Street Fighter

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Street Fighter is an adaptation of the Street Fighter video game series. In this feature, M. Bison hosts the second World Warrior Tournament as a scheme to capture Ryu and extract the power of the Hadou.

This is one of those insanely ridiculous movies; the sort of feature you find yourself laughing at far more than you're laughing with. This film just goes in a thousand different directions, and very rarely does it actually tie up a plot thread. In Street Fighter, there is a central story about two 'brothers': Ryu and Ken. Two fighters who trained under the same master in developing their skill with the Hadou, a fighting energy that holds the power to corrupt. We get whole streaks of their backstory delivered in beautiful, albeit quite jarring animation. The quality of design for the animation is so good it makes you wish that the entire film had been done in that medium. As it stands, we get this very personal arc for Ryu and Ken that often overrides anything else. A lot of it is highly predictable, and we're all left waiting for Ryu to inevitably be turned to the dark side and saved by Ken. However, there are so many times where their story needs to be pushed forward, and the film really struggles with how to do this. Pushing the prison break scene through and killing the fighting tournament storyline seemed quite lazy. Even the battle with Akuma later on felt like a lot of build-up for next to no return. Beyond loosely deciding to work together and believe in one another, the two leads don't really grow a whole bunch across the film either. The film putting everything on these two leads goes right with Noah Centineo; his work as Ken shows off his ability to belt quips and be charismatic. Andrew Koji, on the other hand, just seems quite boring; he isn't very expressive, and it's difficult to care about Ryu as a character.

I felt like there was a lot going on in the fringes of this film, which often made the whole thing play as overstuffed. The big focal point of this film was the fighting tournament, a setting where we barely got to see any action take place. The film is quite aware that it diminishes the tournament's importance, but you still feel cheated when you watch characters like Guile have their fight completely skipped over. There seems to be a bit of a push for characters from the games to have a spot at every turn, which just means there's a bit too much to look at and no one really gets good service out of it. There are a number of fighters who appear in the background and don't really add much to the film (50 Cent, Peck, Goto, Richters, and Volkanovski). There are also performers like Jason Momoa, Eric André and Kyle Mooney who just make complete unlikeable goofballs out of their roles; Momoa's childish Blanka is a particular low point. That's not to say all supporting characters were bad. I loved the rivalry and aggression Jarnson and Vallandingham brought to their characters. Andrew Schulz was absolutely hysterical here as Centineo's best friend and manager. 

This is a film that for the first hour is pretty self-aware of how crazy it is. There is a strong sense of playing into that. Jokes point at funny characters or circumstances and tease them out. There's a sense of levity that settles you in and gets you comfortable with a pretty zany world. This section of the film also has some brutal fight sequences with a very real sense of physical combat to them, although CGI swallows these sequences whole as the film progresses. I found villain stories in this to be where the film falls over in another way. Akuma, played by Joe Anoa'i, is not merely a bad performance but also just sort of happens without much effort to tell his story. The main antagonist feels like it should be Dastmalchian, who played M. Bison and has most of the villainous screen time. But as a character, Bison winds up being inconsistent and convoluted. Watching his eyelids flutter as pain and conflict happen around him is one thing, but the psychic floating that later turns into him fleeing out of the film entirely just fails to serve anything at all. This is particularly frustrating as Chun-Li, played by Callina Liang, is only really here to get revenge against that one villainous character. Her entire character often feels a little off to the side, doing her own thing but lacking the charisma to make that time her own.

This whole film is quite weirdly written and structured, with nothing ever really coming to much of a conclusion. You can have someone like Cody Rhodes comfortably play the funniest and best character in the film, oozing chemistry with performers like Jammwal. But then the film will just completely abandon him. Meanwhile, there's no cohesion in the main storyline, and the antagonist storylines create some really lousy, half-baked conflict. The fact that this film has the nerve to leave it all in the wind at the end is extremely disappointing. A movie like Street Fighter can tease a sequel, but there's no good reason to hang everything it has on a sequel without really bringing anything to a close. As a fighting film, it has the capacity to be cool, to get funky with the camera. But a lot of the time the camera caters to setting up a visual effect that often looks bad or half-finished. And if the camera isn't doing that, you can be sure it's taking in a woman's body like we're back to making early 2000s blockbusters. The soundtrack is chaos, with no real consistency here either. Although we'll always have Noah Centineo being beat up by 50 Cent as 'Many Men (Wish Death)' plays in slow motion.

There's never really going to be a good film adapted from a fighting video game, is there? I would give Street Fighter a 3.5/10.