We Bury The Dead

 

This review may contain spoilers!

We Bury The Dead is a zombie thriller in which an American pulse weapon accidentally kills the entire population of Tasmania during a test. Those killed have been rendered deceased by the electronic pulse, though some are 'returning to life'. Ava travels to Tasmania and volunteers to join the Body Retrieval unit, in the hope of being reunited with her husband.

In a world where the zombie genre has had a good stab taken at it a few times, it is such a delight to see how creativity can still bloom in the genre. At the top of the year, I remember thinking how off the wall it was watching Ralph Fiennes dance with a zombie alpha in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. This film has its own creative stake in the genre, presenting a world in which a mere few zombies roam. Each encounter feels more personal; this isn't about getting away from the undead hordes. Some of the zombies here thrash and gnash with rage at being unable to fulfil their unfinished business. But in the same feature, we see a dead man bury his family and experience grief, and a dead woman gives birth to her living baby and sees it safely into the hands of others. It is strangely unconventional in how raw and rugged it is, people become weight to be moved by workers who are hoping like hell to find a shred of life. I think the frantic nature of Ava's odyssey across Tasmania proves that more than anything else. I also think this film held a really solid antagonist in the form of Riley. This was a man who had his whole world ripped away from him and tried to keep it alive in a grotesque, malformed manner.

I think the style of We Bury The Dead really knows how to capture stark, graphic horror. And I don't mean graphic like gore, but the visual scale of the desolation. There are the cruel frames of death caught like a photo snapshot, coupled with the raging landscape of a destroyed Hobart. That blood-red skyline had me entirely captivated. I loved the score for this film, it has a hard, driven edge to the whole thing as our lead hurtles her way to her final destination. The soundtrack was a real tight collection of tracks, but nothing bests that moment when we're cutting out and Metric's 'Help I'm Alive' kicks in.

Daisy Ridley, who played Ava, feels like a very grounded and determined protagonist; watching Ridley be allowed to grieve and rage in the final act of the film is where she shines brightest. Brenton Thwaites, who played Clay, is a real rough-around-the-edges tradie who has jumped free from his life to gather the dead; Thwaites is pretty uncouth here, yet still manages to be entirely charming. Kym Jackson, who played Lieutenant Wilkie, is a genuine authority figure here; Jackson's role expresses some genuine hatred of Americans for what they had reaped on Tasmania in this, which was absolutely powerful.

However, the best performance came from Mark Coles Smith, who played Riley. This is a very stoic, military role at first impression; quite a tense hero type who saves our leading character right in the nick of time. But Smith has a deeper dimension going on here; he leans into a role that is sweating buckets and clearly not showing all the angles. Riley wants Ava for a very specific purpose; he has a hole in his life where his wife, soon-to-be-born child and family used to be. Smith is this fragile yet dangerous figure who holds Ava in captivity briefly, forcing her to play a part she wants no part of. Smith becomes imposing, trying to place Ava where his wife stood. In truth, he is unhinged and broken by the horrors that have been inflicted upon him; he is one of the greatest dangers Ava has to face in this movie. It's an impressive turn from Mark Coles Smith, who really elevates this whole feature.

When I watch a film, I often love falling into a character's story, learning about the people I'm watching and coming to relate with them. We Bury The Dead really struggles with conveying this part of the film. It tries to intersperse the feature with vague flashbacks to make a rough patchwork of Ava and Mitch's relationship. But this doesn't reinforce much beyond telling us two actors don't have a heck of a lot of romantic chemistry with one another. Ava is really bad at expressing herself; she states her core mission, but we don't chip much past that inciting incident layer. Yet pretty much every character we meet struggles to talk; no one knows how to frame their feelings and pull a scene into an interesting narrative direction. The themes around things left unsaid, or grieving a relationship that has already moved on, are obvious because the movie eventually gives up on itself and just has the characters overtly spell it all out in the last fifteen minutes. I found the first third of this movie to be a tougher slog; it was riddled with quite average Australian background actors that made this whole thing feel like a parody of itself at first.

The editing throughout the film seems relatively lethargic, which might be deliberate with this being a slower indie film, but it makes the pacing difficult at times. This is a movie about a journey, but the journey often feels a lot longer than it really is.

Matt Whelan, who played Mitch, felt like a complete empty slate; Whelan couldn't conjure anything resembling meaningful chemistry with his on-screen wife, Ridley.

I am just loving how creative the resurgence of the zombie genre is feeling. I would give We Bury The Dead a 6.5/10.

Iron Lung

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Iron Lung is an adaptation of David Szymanski's video game of the same name. A cosmic horror set in a futuristic dying universe, this film follows Simon, a convict set inside a sealed submersible and forced to scour the depths of a moon with an ocean made of blood.

Iron Lung is the sort of horror film that knows how to draw you in. We are just as trapped as Simon in this iron box, confined and desperate for answers. This film works hard to impose a growing sense of dread. It starts slow, a creak in the hull, an eerie picture on the camera feed or a droplet of blood from above. But the film gears us up towards danger, makes us wonder what else lies within the depths, knowing that we can only ponder. The deeper Simon goes, the more we are confronted with hallucinations, invasive voices and visions of eldritch bloody beings. Escape becomes less certain, and hope is like a guttering flame. Watching Simon wrestle with his own crisis of conscience, while his very environment preys upon him, is a powerful yet demented setting. The sense of mystery that is cultivated around the 'creature' that preys upon Simon, living in the blood, is well handled. In fact, this monstrous, oppressive entity is a great horror antagonist.

It is rare to see a film where one setting is what we are limited to. The why behind this seems clear: how do you keep such a film interesting when it comes to style? The visual style never seems to be a hurdle for Mark Fischbach however, he takes what amounts to little more than a tube and turns it into a cloying, claustrophobic experience. The intensity of the close-ups and the deliberate placement of the camera certainly helped that sense of mounting dread I described earlier.

Troy Baker, who played David, is a nice break in tone from a character perspective; Baker employs a bit of gruff macho camaraderie to try to influence Simon, which is amusing. Elsie Lovelock, who voiced SM-8 Research Lead and The Speaker, is a powerful force for the sense of inescapable horror in this film; Lovelock's voice work will cut you to the bone and has this drowning sensation to it that is extremely effective.

However, the best performance came from Caroline Kaplan, who played Ava. This is a role with quite a perceived level of power over Simon across the film; she is the jailor, and he is the prisoner. She is a tough, militaristic presence who commands and attempts to control Simon. She has a bend towards duty and shows little compassion for Simon at first. If anything, there is real venom between the two, but chiefly from Kaplan's side. As the film goes on, we start to see Ava as a figure with the capacity to change. Kaplan allows her to connect with Simon and show hope. We get a sense that she wants out of this wretched existence as much as he does and is willing to risk her station to get salvation. Though in a more minor role, Kaplan feels like a character with both feet firmly planted in the Iron Lung universe.

Iron Lung is an interesting piece of horror; it does the fear element well, but it really struggles to pull you into the world it occupies. I found the moments in which the film touches upon the Quiet Rapture, the Eden faction or even Simon's terrorist background to be entirely debilitating to the story. The world feels quite convoluted; it wants to be perceived as a difficult puzzle, but that doesn't make this especially palatable for the audience. It doesn't hold a sense of mystery like the horrors below the ocean of blood; it just feels like a clunky bit of sci-fi cobbled together to adorn the greater end result. Even the mission around sending down prisoners holds little sense of purpose; we get the sense it has something to do with saving the universe or gathering food, but it gets a bit aimless. There is also a long portion within the middle that feels like a montage of travel. It creates a needless hitch in the pacing that could have otherwise been smoothed out.

The editing across this whole thing takes a blender to what is quite a decent piece of cinematography, janky and disruptive cutting make Iron Lung difficult to follow when things get frantic. I also think the sound mixing here shows how indie this feature is; the way sounds trample over one another can entirely ruin a scene. The score for the film wasn't especially memorable, a hollow droning that doesn't heighten the sense of fear much at all.

Mark Fischbach, who played Simon, just seems a bit too polished to work as the bedraggled lead prisoner of the film; Fischbach has designed something brilliant here, but his more limited range gets in the way of what could have been a great leading character.

A perfectly commendable horror film that is absolutely changing the game for indie cinema. I would give Iron Lung a 6/10.

Send Help

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Send Help is a survival horror/thriller following Linda Liddle, a company employee who gets overlooked by her boss, a young nepo baby narcissist. When their plane crashes on the way to an important business meeting, Linda and her boss find themselves stranded on a deserted island.

I really felt I was going to be hooked by this film from the very beginning. Linda is an awkward and sad individual who lives a very isolated life and doesn't have much go right for her. When Bradley, her new boss, enters the scene, it becomes clear that Linda is going to be trampled over by a guy who barely considers her existence. Around this point, I was expecting a bit of a social commentary on modern workplaces and the way women versus men are treated in these spaces. And this movie does have a bit of that. But what this movie really is about is power. Bradley held power at the beginning of the film because of his status and inherited wealth. But once this duo reaches the island, Bradley must come to depend on Linda because she holds all of the knowledge and the resources to survive. The power balance has completely flipped. As the film goes on, we see the pair test this new dynamic, Bradley fighting and manipulating his way back to control, while Linda explores what she can get out of this new power she finds herself with. I really adored the way Sam Raimi developed Linda as a memorable horror protagonist/antagonist. Her eccentricities start small and seem soft, but the power she holds in this situation unmasks a very troubled past. Linda is capable of dark action; she has proven this before, and she proceeds to ramp up across the film. I also think Send Help has a dark, yet camp sense of humour going for it that is side-splitting at times and unnerving at others.

Sam Raimi is an absolute auteur when it comes to capturing horror cinematically, and Send Help is no different. The camera slowly pushes in to heighten emotion, and Raimi can thrill with sudden gripping extreme close-ups. There are also a few shots across this that make me think of classic horror lighting of old, with some reasonable callbacks to 50s and 60s horror at times. Danny Elfman's mad score cartwheels between out-of-place whimsy to a stressful, fast-paced rhythm. The soundtrack also holds a couple of good cards; 'One Way or Another' by Blondie is the perfect footnote to all of this.

Dylan O'Brien, who played Bradley Preston, is the perfect match for McAdams; O'Brien is immediately dislikeable and plays to a very twisted selfish persona well.

However, the best performance came from Rachel McAdams, who played Linda Liddle. McAdams crafts a character who is a little off-kilter across the feature; watching this personality really become untethered is something I struggled to look away from. Linda seems meek at first, someone who gets run roughshod over without much complaint. Her life is sad, and McAdams creates a dizzying optimism that is relatively tragic. Yet seeing her confidence and mania emerge once she is upon the island and holds power is a terrifying force unto itself. McAdams character work here is nuts, you cannot predict Linda, nothing really feels off the table. I couldn't believe the ways McAdams distorted and manipulated her facial muscles throughout; her twitching and spasming felt seamless in moulding this unhinged killer.

Send Help is quite a great film, but it is unabashedly an abrasive watch. None of the cast of characters is especially likable; all have a darker bend to their morality. I also thought that this film makes an effort to push your comfort levels, often making a concerted effort to gross out the viewer. The tone goes big, which works more than it doesn't, but sometimes it results in a campy tone or a physical gag going on for a bit too long. The final couple of minutes of the film weren't especially satisfying beyond that soundtrack number. Linda always seemed fated to come out on top, but the way this was blown up was rather on the nose.

Something I do struggle with in a Sam Raimi feature is that the editing can feel rather dated at times; there are a lot of transitions in Send Help that yanked me out of the flow entirely. I also didn't love the special effects. The plane crash worked well enough, but the boar looked ridiculous.

Edyll Ismail, who played Zuri, feels so entirely distant from O'Brien that it becomes difficult to believe in their relationship, Ismail really plays the emotional beats of her character in a rather obvious, wooden manner. Xavier Samuel, who played Donovan, is quite the stereotypical 'business bro'; his antagonistic ego feels simple in presentation. Dennis Haysbert, who played Franklin, is quite a dry role; Haysbert's stoic presence is pretty forgettable in truth.

Sam Raimi, being an absolute oddball, has made a kooky thriller well worth your time. I would give Send Help a 7.5/10.

Marty Supreme

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Marty Supreme follows Marty Mauser, a professional table tennis player who has banked his entire life on becoming a major success through the sport. When his bad decisions and narcissism catch up with him, Marty risks everything to raise enough money to qualify for the World Championships in Tokyo.

I feel like it's pretty easy to recognise a Marty. That's what I thought after leaving this film. There is so much talk about hustling, grinding and being the best possible you amongst young men these days; a perpetual push for greatness and success via narcissism and self-serving action. Marty Supreme is a film about being a young man who has staked his very being on being one thing: the very best. Yet, watching this movie, it quickly shifts from feeling thrilling to becoming wildly dismaying, watching Marty try and fail at every turn to be the success he claims to be. Marty Mauser, our protagonist, is a legendary table tennis player. But Marty Mauser is rarely a good person. He pushes aside his mother, he robs from his uncle, he knocks up one of his closest friends and doesn't take responsibility for the child, and at every turn, he lies. Marty racks up debt to stay at the Ritz, and he plays manipulative games to coerce an acting celebrity to sleep with him. Because Marty doesn't serve his responsibilities or even his life, he serves the image he wishes to portray. This movie isn't about a character who is the victim of his own success; Marty is the victim of sacrificing everything good in or around him to seem successful. It's an important distinction, one that the film drills home superbly. By the very end of the film, once Marty has cast everything aside, humiliated himself and been left with his ego no longer intact, he manages to find a moment of triumph. A point where it is just him and his skill left, a compelling moment that feels righteous despite everything. This film is also Rachel Mizler's story in a lot of ways, too. Rachel is the young woman who gets knocked up by Marty, abandoned while he tours the world and then spends the weeks of his return trying to get him to connect with her. It's agonising to see the lengths Rachel goes to win Marty's attention.

Josh Safdie has an absolutely riveting piece of cinema with Marty Supreme. If you thought the Safdie Brothers were delivering something wild with Uncut Gems, this is the next step up. The camera pushes in close for these conniving deals and moments of bargaining while also getting creative with how it constructs moments of action or the speedy delivery of those table tennis sequences. The editing has an exceptional flow to it; the film feels like it is rushing to a crash-out in the best possible way. The score really holds you in its grip, scaling those moments of shock and making you feel exasperated in all of the right places. The soundtrack grounds things in the time while also drilling home those themes of false young grandeur; tracks like 'Forever Young' by Alphaville capture the point of Marty Supreme exactly.

Larry 'Ratso' Sloman, who played Murray Norkin, is the ultimate'tough love' uncle; Sloman really tries to rein in Chalamet's tremendous ego in a pretty grounded manner. Odessa A'zion, who played Rachel Mizler, is an absolute standout star in this; A'Zion gives us a woman who is trying so hard to win over the attention of the man she loves that she is letting herself be swallowed by the danger he faces. Luke Manley, who played Dion Galanis, starts the film being blindly optimistic and enchanted with Chalamet's Marty; Manley does a great job of presenting a character who realises his friend is a liar and a fraud. Emory Cohen, who played Ira Mizler, is a very volatile husband to A'Zion in this; Cohen's character is a really wound-up and aggressive guy who often puts that energy back onto his wife. John Catsimatidis, who played Christopher Galanis, is really shrewd at bartering with Chalamet; I like how Catsimatidis plays a scene as if he is protecting Manley's character. Géza Röhrig, who played Béla Kletzki, is one of the more quietly earnest characters in the film; Röhrig really strives for the best and is a moment of good in Marty's orbit. Pico Iyer, who played Ram Sethi, is an incredibly strict edge of authority; Iyer brings a tremendous level of decorum to the role that makes his hatred for Marty work so well. Kevin O'Leary, who played Milton Rockwell, just steals the show in this film almost constantly; I had no idea the sort of raw antagonist potential O'Leary had in him, but I am glad Josh Safdie did. Abel Ferrara, who played Ezra Mishkin, is a real tough crook; Ferrara does a good job of introducing him in a sympathetic light before revealing how dangerous he can be. Isaac Mizrahi, who played Merle, is a real spirited delight; Mizrahi actually manages to draw some real energy out of scenes with Paltrow.

However, the best performance came from Timothée Chalamet, who played Marty Mauser. This is the sort of performance that feels like everything has been thrown at it. Chalamet wants us to see he understands Marty and is going to give it his all. If you want to watch a performance where the character thinks he is a charismatic, quick-talker, Chalamet has that aspect down completely. This is a character who serves himself first and will burn others in his wake if it gets him even a little bit ahead. Chalamet's take on Marty is at times quite self-aware of his own lack of morality, sometimes wallowing in this and at others wickedly praising his own deviousness. His spirit really breaks in the final act, and after that, a lot of the ego strips away. Watch everything Chalamet gives in those table tennis scenes; that final game is nothing short of impressive.

The thing I will always struggle to enjoy about films like Marty Supreme is that it's difficult to root for a cast of characters who are mostly dislikeable. Marty is a protagonist who almost immediately begins the film by showing us he can be pretty awful towards others. He robbed his uncle's shoe store by pulling a gun on a fellow clerk. But even many of the side characters exhibit horrible personality moments, the film tends towards showing the audience morally weak individuals colliding with one another. I also felt the 'happy ending' of the final moments was far too safe for what this movie had been. Marty, finding himself with a secure family situation moving forward doesn't really mesh nicely with the tone of the movie up until that point.

Tyler the Creator, who played Wally, doesn't really fall in step as Marty's buddy; this is a performance that really accompanies Chalamet but doesn't strike much of a chord. Fran Drescher, who played Rebecca Mauser, doesn't really connect with Chalamet in a way that feels like they have any mother/son relationship at all; Drescher's mother figure is a flat presence in the film with little self-agency. Dwyneth Paltrow, who played Kay Stone, is so staggeringly obvious in this; Paltrow plays a pretty shallow part in a role that could have been more in anyone else's hands.

Timothée Chalamet treats this movie like it is all or nothing, resulting in a must-watch piece of cinema. I would give Marty Supreme a 9/10.

Hamnet

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Hamnet is an adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's historical fiction novel of the same name. This story depicts the young love of William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes. It also more impactfully focuses on the death of their young son, Hamnet, and how their family grieves his passing.

This film is a genuine emotional journey that will tug on your heartstrings hard. There is such human beauty in this film that it becomes so difficult not to feel those intense moments of despair and grief yourself. Hamnet is a historical period drama that grounds you in a quaint rural setting, a wilding place that has the call of the woods just on the cusp of its township. Here, two lives intersect. Agnes, who is accused of being born to a witch and is, in fact, a herbalist and a falconer. And then there is Will, a tanner and learned tutor who finds no passion in these works but a call to write. Will finds himself in complete infatuation with Agnes; her eccentricities are a wonder to him. Their love for one another tumbles together, despite societal customs being truly set against them. They labour in life together, their family grows, and Will comes to work in London. Agnes is a pillar for her children, keeping them healthy and happy through every season. The crux of the movie sees this family dynamic harried by Judith's poor health. On the cusp of falling to plague, we see a dramatisation of Hamnet trading places with his twin sister, 'tricking Death' into taking him instead. A shroud falls over the family, and we see each of them mourn in their own manner. Agnes and Will grow divided, blame is held, and neither can find comfort in their pain. And then a play is forged. Hamlet, Will's great tragedy. Here we see a beautiful response to death, to loss, to the spectre that lingers still. It is a moment of real beauty in the film, where Agnes and Will both find connection in their shared grief. For theatre and literature lovers alike, this is one of the greatest reads of Hamlet that I have ever watched. It is an emotionally harrowing film brimming with raw emotion that you will feel entirely bonded to. Hamnet is one of those films that everyone ought to see; it's cinema at its very finest form.

Chloé Zhao is in fine filmmaking form here, crafting a feature that might just be her very best to date (which is saying something). The style of this film took me a moment to understand, but it is rather picturesque once you have sat with it enough. The whole film sets the camera up as if it is capturing a stage; very still shots that hold a whole room or space. The wilder places are lovingly caught, and higher emotion sees the camera start to shakily run alongside its subject. Max Richter's score for this film is a melancholy piece, really beautiful and emotional. This is a cinematic score that really understands the work it is pairing with deeply.

Paul Mescal, who played Will, isn't always a confident character, but he wears his heart upon his sleeve; Mescal gives a man who can be entirely wretched in his own sense of self but who can bare himself entirely through story. Joe Alwyn, who played Bartholomew, is very much a stoic patriarch of his family home; yet he has a softness for and great chemistry with his onscreen sister, Buckley. Emily Watson, who played Mary, hasn't got her strongest role here, but serves as a good challenge to pair against Buckley; Watson's role has experienced loss and bears this like a stone upon her back. Louisa Harland and Faith Delaney, who played Rowan and Young Agnes respectively, mark a very special moment of joy in this film; a glimpse into what makes Agnes and the point at which she was truly happy with her mother. Jacobi Jupe, who played Hamnet, is an absolutely inspired young performer, given his age; Jupe pours such complex emotion into such a young character. Olivia Lynes and Bodhi Rae Breathnach, who played Judith and Susanna respectively, are also really capable as Will and Agnes' young daughters; I loved the sibling chemistry between Jupe and Lynes, especially. Noah Jupe, who played Hamlet, gives an incredible classic rendition of this famous theatrical role; that moment of wonder at the end of his performance is a moment of cinema I really won't forget.

However, the best performance came from Jessie Buckley, who played Agnes. This character is a very difficult one to get a bead on at first, and Buckley isn't interested in unshrouding that mystery to the audience too soon. Agnes is a wild character, better in the company of the local forest than in polite society. Buckley has such grace with moments like when her character is falconing or concocting natural remedies from the plants she discovers. Agnes can seem very abrasive and quick to anger; she doesn't fall in naturally with the expectations of her station or the Church. Buckley crafts a woman who is fiercely and unapologetically a force unto herself, a fighter and a free spirit. Buckley and Mescal have a very steady chemistry that grows to passion and love before dimming and then finding connection again. Watching Buckley perform the birth scene of the twins was a difficult watch, as were the scenes in which she was treating her childrens' sickness. Buckley presented emotions in such a raw, powerful way that her grief and sorrow felt authentic. I loved seeing her in those final moments of observing the play, seeing some moment of recognition and peace spark within her.

Hamnet is a prickly movie at first. This isn't the sort of story that immediately welcomes the viewer in; it begins rather askance and gives you characters rife with eccentric qualities and a love story that takes time to ignite. The cast of characters isn't always likeable and there are severe abrasive moments that you have to learn and understand. The film is also quite a slow-burning piece; it moves at a very gentle pace that meanders through the lives of Shakespeare's family.

The editing is a big proponent of why this film takes time to really get off the ground. This is cutting at a crawl, which moves us at a very meandering pace.

Justine Mitchell, who played Joan, gives a pretty classic, stereotypical portrayal of the unlikeable stepmother; Mitchell's antagonism with Buckley could have been more deeply explored. David Wilmot, who played John, is just this abrupt force of fatherly abuse; Wilmot has nothing to give beyond a mean-spirited edge.

An emotional juggernaut that captures love and the process of grief with sincerity and expertise. I would give Hamnet a 9.5/10.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

 

This review may contain spoilers!

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is the fourth film in the 28 series and a direct sequel to 28 Years Later (2025). Our story picks up with Spike having been taken and inducted into the Jimmy gang, a crazed band of Satan worshippers who attack the living and dead in equal measure. At the same time, Dr. Kelson has made a discovery through the Alpha, Samson, that will change things forever.

This is a film that really takes the ground floor of what 28 Years achieved and really runs away with it. I absolutely enjoyed 28 Years Later, but it gave us a familiar zombie apocalypse world in some aspects. The Bone Temple is a refreshing spin that had me horrified, laughing and saddened across the entire story. There are two branching narratives here that both have plenty to give. The Jimmys, as an antagonistic force, are quite unique. These aren't your typical Satan-worshipping nut bars at the end of the world; they are adorned in blond wigs and bright tracksuits with a manic sense of hilarity to everything they do. They have a stunted, childlike way of navigating this world that harks back to their leader, Sir Jimmy Crystal. Sir Jimmy's childhood saw the zombie outbreak come, and the fractured jigsaw of his mind has pieced it all together very badly indeed since that origin. Sir Jimmy is also a little aware that he is holding his band together through lies and theatre, which leads to a great scene where he meets Dr. Kelson. Kelson's story is intriguing in a different sense. He is so achingly lonely here, moving forward with his work and surviving the infected. However, he starts to find an unlikely ally in the Alpha, Samson, which is an incredible surprise in itself. Yet, as this bond goes on, we see that Kelson believes himself capable of curing the infection and freeing Samson from his own mind. Kelson is one of the more noble figures to emerge from the 28 series, and one of the more cunning. The big Satan scene at the climax of the film is worth the price of admission; it's a moment that shows how far Sir Jimmy will go to keep his power, alongside Kelson's prowess as a survivor. The ending is bittersweet and not without a sense of tragedy. The Bone Temple makes you sit inside this apocalyptic world, it's not about being one character's story but rather, a glimpse into exisiting within this world and watching it try to evolve.

I wasn't sure what to expect with Nia DaCosta taking the helm here, but she has sculpted something that must be her best film to date. The style of this film makes the horror feel fast and lethal again; there is a real effort placed on capturing moments of despair and terror in a gripping way. The camera doesn't let you turn away, but it also rewards you with these beautiful moments of colour and performance that are rather powerful to watch. The editing dashes along at a great pace, holding a very deliberate pace for longer dialogue scenes and shifting into action effortlessly. The score for the film is intense and bone-chilling at times; I adored that the soundtrack we were given is a real triumph. A film that can use 'Girls on Film' just as impressively as 'The Number of the Beast' deserves a lot of praise.

Jack O'Connell, who played Sir Jimmy Crystal, is an absolutely unhinged antagonist here; O'Connell plays a rabid showman clutching on to his sense of power for dear life. Alfie Williams, who played Spike, is a very talented young performer; Williams isn't pushing things along as much as the first film, but he really dives into those more emotionally complex scenes. Emma Laird, who played Jimmima, is perhaps the most insane of the Jimmys; Laird really brings the venom to this antagonist. Chi Lewis-Parry, who played Samson, really takes physical performance to an impressive level; both convincing as a raving zombie but also as a creature finding his humanity again. 

However, the best performance came from Ralph Fiennes, who played Dr. Kelson. I found Fiennes to be the best part of 28 Years Later as well, and he certainly knows how to carry this momentum on. Here we see Kelson as the lonely and tired observer that he is. Fiennes puts great care into making Kelson someone we see as truly good, even caring for a hulking infected across the feature. The bond Fiennes crafts with Lewis-Parry's Samson is quite sweet, if not boggling at first. Kelson is a character who is trying to find the moments of hope still in this world, and the fact that he finds that even with the infected is rather special. I love the quick wit Fiennes is capable of; he runs away with the dialogue of his character and is the sharpest tack in any scene. Fiennes and O'Connell squaring off is one of the greatest verbal duels I've seen in a while. While Fiennes' big performance as Kelson pretending to be Satan is the very height of the feature. His softer nature appears when he attempts to save Spike, which is a pure moment of good in the film, a point where Fiennes lifts Kelson up beyond just a survivor, but as a truly good man.

This movie took a moment to get going, without much of a precursor, the freewheeling absurdity of the Jimmy gang is thrown in our faces. I really enjoyed watching this group as things progressed, but the start is initially a bit of a ridiculous ride. The same thing can be said for Kelson and Samson's friendship, which had very real moments of absurdity in the early stages. I also felt The Bone Temple and 28 Years Later suffer from the same issue, pushing a sequel in their final moments. Watching Jim from 28 Days Later trotted out like some legendary cameo actually didn't wow me very much as a viewer.

Erin Kellyman, who played Jimmy Ink, is a performer who really struggles to capture focus in a scene; Kellyman's role has no bite to her that makes her interesting. Cillian Murphy, who played Jim, is quite a jarring appearance at the end of the film; Murphy's lone moment feels dull and a bit predictable as far as appearances go.

Another solid entry in the 28 series, probably Nia DaCosta's best film to date and one of the most creative works we've had in the zombie genre for a while. I would give 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple an 8.5/10.

People We Meet On Vacation

 

This review may contain spoilers!

People We Meet On Vacation is an adaptation of the Emily Henry romance novel of the same name. In this film, Poppy and Alex kindle a friendship driving home from college to Linfield, Ohio. As they become close, they decide to make a pact to go on a vacation with one another every summer for the rest of their lives.

This is the sort of film that starts pretty well; there's a bit of intrigue about Poppy's past relationship with Alex, and we get a flashback of how they met. It's that early stage, when they seem to grate on one another before realising that they actually quite like the company of the other person and become friends in the motel room scene, when the film is strongest.

The current pop music soundtrack of this film really plants us in romance territory, but more than that, it makes our protagonists feel entirely wild and free. 'Forever Your Girl' by Paula Abdul is such a good anthem track for our two leading roles.

Molly Shannon and Alan Ruck, who played Wanda and Jimmy respectively, were some of the funniest characters in the film; the scene in which they are trying to talk to the two young leads about safe sex is one of the best in the feature.

However, the best performance came from Emily Bader, who played Poppy. I love it when a young performer sees the chance of leading a major film for the shot it is and really puts their everything into it. From the moment she hits the screen, you can tell Bader is really invested in telling this awkward travel blogger's story well. Poppy is a bit of a chaotic force to be reckoned with; her attention span is scattered, and she runs at a million miles a minute. The character isn't written to tell jokes, yet I found Bader to be an absolutely hilarious lead. Poppy is a character who has faced hardship and dedicated her life to running away from that moment in time. It's really interesting seeing how Bader pushes those tiny moments of feeling broken through. As a whole, this is also just such a fun leading character for a romance movie, and Bader does a good job of showing that moment where her character falls head over heels in love.

This is a film based on a BookTok book, the sort of trend-driven romance that relies on stuffing as many tropes into a read as possible. People We Meet On Vacation watches exactly like that. Poppy and Alex don't really like one another at first, we get a one-bed at the motel situation, the whole thing is unrequited love and friends to lovers. The film doesn't even try to hide the possibility that these two will wind up together; there's no mystique to any of it. But they do have to work unbearably hard to get there. For the most part, this is a film with two characters yearning for one another the whole time, while we deal with them being with other people or an engagement or their lifestyles being too different for one another. Even when the film finally pulls this couple together, it then shatters them apart so that we can have one more reunion scene. I also wasn't a very big fan of the structure of this feature. The fact that we had a modern-day setting where the character personalities yoyo-ed between their usual personalities to grave stoicism was bad enough. But the fact it became broken up with a constant series of flashbacks to every summer holiday between this couple would be jarring and obvious. The flow of the film always wound up feeling interrupted, while you had to listen to characters bluntly say to one another, "Norway was my favourite trip..." seconds before the flashback strikes. Poppy might be a travel writer, but her job seems to be more of an afterthought to the film to make it all work. I also struggled with the dialogue as the film went along, lines like "You're my vacation" coming at the audience by the end of the film felt like the writers just gave up.

The style of this film is nice in those establishing shots, postcard moments. But a movie can't just be pretty on the cover; it has to show a sense of style the whole ride through. People We Meet On Vacation makes some settings feel staged (as they are), places the camera in obvious spots and struggles with lighting problems throughout. I also found the editing of this film to be agonisingly dull; often, scenes had a habit of lingering too long on a shot or a narrative beat. The score for this film is probably the sort that could be applied to any Hallmark romance film; it lacks character and identity.

Tom Blyth, who played Alex, didn't really feel like a great lead for a romance feature; Blyth was often so expressionless and didn't pour enough emotional variance into a scene. Sarah Catherine Hook, Lucien Laviscount and Spencer Neville, who played Sarah, Trey and Julian respectively, failed to present anything resembling characters; these were the fictional exes that sort of held on tightly to the lead performers in a handful of scenes. Miles Heizer, Tommy Do and Ian Porter, who played David, Nam and Ed Nilsen respectively, were Blyth's onscreen family but added little to the film; even the moments where Porter and Blyth could have had an emotional connection failed to amount to anything. Jameela Jamil, who played Swapna, struggles to play roles very differently from one another; there was no part of this movie where I felt Jamil helmed a successful travel magazine or blog, nor did I feel she even resembled Bader's boss. Lukas Gage, who played Buck, is a bit of a novelty sexy character played for comedy; Gage feels more propped up to be laughed at than to actually play a part in this movie. Alice Lee, who played Rachel, is a friend type tossed to Bader early on and then promptly snatched away; Lee's place in this film feels like a rather unnecessary element.

A remarkably shallow streaming romance film that proves smushing corny dialogue and Booktok-level pining doesn't make for much of a story. I would give People We Meet On Vacation a 2/10.