Nimona (2023) - Movie Review

Blue Sky Studios deserved better. I had given them a lot of flak for stuff like the Ice Age series and the Rio series, but their last two features not only showed drastic improvement from that standard, but showed that they had carved out their own niche in the modern animation market. Ferdinand had its growing pains, but still had some solid messaging, and Spies In Disguise only built on them further to make something even better. At long last, they found their (in my opinion) much-needed lane for today's family films with some strong pacifist messaging.

Then Disney bought out Blue Sky’s parent company 21^st Century Fox, repeatedly delayed their next feature, and then outright cancelled it along with Blue Sky Studios as a whole. The company that thinks digging up the graves of their previous successes, and that a new coat of CGI paint will cover the smell of stale corpse that is being paraded in front of audiences for profit, is a sound business strategy, but allowing a studio to continue operation and produce media that, just maybe, people might actually want to watch isn’t.

But out of the ashes of Blue Sky, this film still managed to take flight. Picked up by Annapurna Pictures, with animation by DNEG (who proved their salt as a dedicated animation studio with Ron’s Gone Wrong and Entergalactic), and Spies In Disguise directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane (who were originally slated for the helm before Blue Sky got shuttered) brought back in. That this whole production exists as a manifestation of hubris and spite against the conglomerate that tried to stop it from being made, quite frankly, has already earned my respect. But hoo boy, did it not stop earning it from there.

Women Talking (2023) - Movie Review

[tw: sexual assault]

In Manitoba Colony, a Mennonite settlement in Bolivia, at least 151 women and children were raped over the course of four-or-so years. An anaesthetic normally reserved for livestock was sprayed in through their windows, knocking everyone inside the houses unconscious. At first, the men of the village attributed the ‘mysterious’ incidents to demonic attacks or possibly being done by Satan himself; in common parlance, once the event broke through the isolated nature of the village and its inhabitants, one name attributed to it was the ‘ghost rapes of Bolivia’.

While this film, and the novel on which it was based, is set with the backdrop of this atrocity, they primarily serve as a dramatic addendum to it. Described on-screen as an “act of female imagination” (a phrase also used to describe the assault itself when the women came forward about a more terrestrial culprit than Christianity's favourite strawman), the story depicts an impromptu council of women from this settlement, who meet up and try to come to a consensus about what they do next. Do they do nothing? Do they stay and fight? Or do they leave?

Blueback (2023) - Movie Review

I haven't had the best luck with Tim Winton. I’ll admit that I haven’t read any of his books (far as I can remember, at any rate), and while I do like to highlight local talent in these reviews, the last two films I’ve looked at based on his work were differing kinds of “really not my thing”. With Breath, it was the jarring and rather unsettling exploration of sexuality, specifically between an underaged boy and a grown-ass woman, which just left a bad taste in my mouth. And with Dirt Music, I didn’t even get that much taste, despite it looking rather nice. Thankfully, this doesn’t feel as gross to watch as Breath… but unfortunately, that means it leans more into the Dirt Music side of things.

Transfusion (2023) - Movie Review

With how many films I get through every year, marketing material and trailers in particular don’t really have an effect on me nowadays. Most of the time, trailers just serve as snapshots for stuff I know I’ll be looking at at some point anyway, so they don’t serve the same interest for me that they would most general audiences. But then there are situations like the marketing around this film, and the subsequent response that the film proper has gotten, and I feel the need to address the discrepancy.

See, the trailer for this film presents it as some kind of crime thriller with shootouts, the kind of thing you’d expect Neeson to have helmed a few years back. But instead, the actual film is more of a slow-burn drama about family, masculinity, and how far men will go to preserve one or the other.

Sweet As (2023) - Movie Review

Pitching something as ‘The Breakfast Club, but set in the Outback’ is pretty much a done deal for a filmgoer like myself. One of the reasons why I love that film, and its central formula, is that it’s a straight-forward but effective foundation for good characterisation, since the story inherently involves discovering everyone’s different facets on the part of both the audience and the other characters. So, naturally, a film about a similar scenario involving troubled teens being brought together to reveal some greater truth that ties them all together… yeah, I’m all for that. But this film isn’t exactly that.

Beautiful Disaster (2023) - Movie Review

After the last two After films, I figured that we had already reached Peak Fanfiction. Between After Ever Happy cutting the pretence and turning its male lead into a glorified fanfic writer, and After Everything bending over backwards about the creepy undertones of legitimising that kind of writing like this, I thought we had officially hit the ceiling. But no, it seems that Wattpad still have at least one more direction to go, and it might be the most embarrassing one yet. See, Beautiful Disaster, the latest product to come out of the Wattpad assembly line, shows the publisher now starting to make fanfiction… about themselves.

Maestro (2023) - Movie Review

Bradley Cooper is one of my favourite people working in Hollywood right now. As an actor, he just got done completing the heartbreaking character arc of a talking raccoon and solidifying him as one of the greatest modern superheroes with Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3. As a producer, he backed another whopper of a comic book flick with Joker, a film I still hold in rather high regard and am beyond curious to see what in the hell the sequel is going to shape into. And as a director, his debut with A Star Is Born was a monster hit when it came out, and one of my faves from that year. The man just keeps making power moves, and always with this unmistakable confidence that, no matter what direction he takes, it’s the right one for him.

It's the kind of quality that makes him helming a film like this (or, more specifically, why Steven Spielberg would emphatically insist that he helm it) make total sense, and something of a necessity in order to do it right. While I freely admit that I don’t know all that much about Leonard Bernstein, the legend around his name carries a lot of weight, and with the take that’s being attempted here, there’s a incredibly high degree of difficulty in making it work.

Aftersun (2023) - Movie Review

We never know people as well as we think we do. No matter how close we get to someone else, or how honest they are to us about what makes them tick, there will always be this invisible wall that will prevent total understanding from taking place. In the moment, it’s possible to overlook this and just take joy out of being with that person, getting to share experiences with them and connect with as much of them as can make it through that wall. But as they drift apart, as people inevitably do for one reason or another, it eventually reaches a point where all that is left is the memory. Those imperfect, incomplete moments that have already been captured. It can be a source of great comfort, or possibly great pain, to reflect on those moments as a means of reconnecting with that person, albeit asymmetrically, but recollection is a funny thing. It’s not always as we remember it.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (2023) - Movie Review

While perusing audience reactions to You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah, I saw this film show up a few times as either the superior version or a potential double-feature candidate with it. Now, this film has been on my radar for a while now, coming from the maker of one of my favourite modern coming-of-age films. I recognise that, at this point, it’s getting a bit redundant whenever I bring up looking at a film made by someone who made another film I’ve reviewed, since that’s the bulk of my selections for this month thus far (and spoilers, it’s going to keep going).

But in this case, I felt a real need to check this one out because Edge Of Seventeen and Craig’s work on it specifically is the progenitor for the wave of coming-of-age films for girls that we’ve experienced since. Lady Bird, Eighth Grade, Booksmart, Babyteeth… maybe Cuties depending on who you ask, even You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah; not only has this led to stories that hadn’t really gotten this level of mainstream attention beforehand finally getting it, but the average for this wave has been pretty damn solid. Even the ones that I’m not in total love with have their merits.

And thankfully, Craig is still tapped directly into that well of inspiration that led to her crafting one of the best coming-of-age films I’ve ever reviewed on here, for her adaptation of a book that I only know the name of because it showed up in one of Dr. Cox’s rants on Scrubs.

Freestyle (2023) - Movie Review

Not a lot of Hip-Hop cinema came out this year, at least from what I could find. There was that House Party remake (made by the same guy who thought casting Jack Harlow in White Men Can't Jump was in any way appealing, and this same damn year at that), but otherwise… yeah, I had to look to Poland to find what I needed. And I specify “needed” because, as I consider Hip-Hop part of my personal cultural make-up, and 2023 marked the 50^th anniversary of that culture, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t give it some shine before the year ended. Well, that and starring the lead from The Hater, one of my faves from 2020, helps too.

The Old Oak (2023) - Movie Review

It’s such a shame that I only started to get into Ken Loach’s work so close to the end of his career. Sure, retirement in the arts has a faster revolving door than Arkham Asylum, but this is one of those deals that might actually stick. And given how immensely depressing his last film was in Sorry We Missed You, along with the equally depressing impression left by The Boy And The Heron earlier this year, I was a bit apprehensive about this at first. But hey, as I pointed out when I highlighted SWMY as one of my faves of 2019, films that bum me the hell out tend to win my favour in the attempt.

The New Boy (2023) - Movie Review

Two people can look at the same image and come away with two completely different understandings of what the image is. This is a fundamental aspect of the human ability to interpret, and something that crops up regularly when it comes to discussing art such as films. As much as I try and give the impression that I know what I’m talking about when writing about what a given image ‘means’, I also try and underpin that with the understanding that this is all my interpretation of things. I could be on the completely wrong track from what the image maker intended to convey, or I could be almost on the same wavelength but missing some vital piece of context, but all the same, I don’t tend to write what I think unless it actually is what I think.

You Hurt My Feelings (2023) - Movie Review

This might sound odd coming from someone who literally criticises people’s work for a living, but actually hearing criticism about your own work… kinda sucks. I may have a little too much fun when writing about stuff I don’t like (just look at my total lack of etiquette when looking at EXMas for FilmInk), but I try and approach each film I review with the understanding that people worked on this. That each production is the culmination of a lot of time and effort being focused to a single point, with many people putting in their hours to make it happen. But as part of that same understanding, I also see the need to be honest about what I think of a given film. The best advice I’ve ever been given about this field (cheers Travis) is deceptively simple: Don’t say you liked it if you didn't, and don't say you didn't like it if you did.

I say that that’s ‘deceptively’ simple because, while we all seem to be all too willing to read random strangers to utter filth over the most minor shit, that can become a bit more difficult when the person you want to criticise is someone you know personally. An aspect of the ‘separate the art from the artist’ notion that doesn’t regularly get brought up is how that applies to those in relationships, be it romantic or professional. Like, you want to help them and give constructive feedback, so that they can become better at their craft, but when you care deeply about them as a person, the idea of telling them anything less than what will make them happy can feel... cruel?

The Son (2023) - Movie Review

Following on from their last collaboration The Father, a film so good that it nearly topped my Best Of 2021 list, writer/director Florian Zeller and co-writer Christopher Hampton have now continued their dramatising of the effects of mental illness with a new film, also based on one of Zeller’s stageplays. This one, however, hasn’t been getting the same glowing rapport; in fact, opinions on this film have been middling at best. Now, as I’ll get into, I can definitely see where the negativity is coming from and even agree with some of it… but man, when this film hits its stride, it reminds me of just how hard The Father hit on first watching it.

You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah (2023) - Movie Review

Well, the last two days have been a bit of a rollercoaster. Going through Happy Madison’s output for the year has led to some pleasant surprises, some unsurprising duds, and some genuinely amazing stuff. And I don’t know if it’s because I’m going into this directly after having my heart torn open by Leo, but this coming-of-age teen flick… it’s alright. Just… alright.

Napoleon (2023) - Movie Review

Much like with Killers Of The Flower Moon, we’ll be looking at another instance of an auteur digging into Apple’s deep pockets to realise their historical epic. Even ignoring the lengthy discrepancies concerning initial box office impact and overall cultural impact, I can only see the notion of a great filmmaker creating great art while also putting a dent into a company that, quite frankly, is rich enough already, as a net positive. Although, I’ll admit that in the case of this film, said positive isn’t quite as strong as Scorsese’s.

Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023) - Movie Review

After what happened when I looked at The Irishman, I don’t want to belabour the point about having issues with films with longer run times. Or, to be more accurate, I don’t want to spend most of this review bitching about my attention span issues as if that’s the fault of the filmmakers. I’ll admit that there are nuances to the binge-watching vs. epic film argument that both sides tend to leave out, but after putting a near-three-hour film at the top of my favourite films list for last year (not to mention finally getting around to the Extended Editions of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy earlier this year), I want to give this film an honest chance that isn’t hindered by my own twitchiness. Or my ongoing indifference towards most Westerns.

Fingernails (2023) - Movie Review

Back in 2015, I reviewed a film called The Lobster. It was early days for this blog, and indeed one of the first reviews I’ve put together that I would describe as a proper ‘deep dive’, and… yeah, it is very much a snapshot of where I was at that point in time. As a writer, it showed me still figuring out my own style and being able to break down my own thoughts regarding film, but as a person, it was from when I was both single and still trying to figure out where exactly my sexuality landed on the broader spectrum. Writing about love when you have limited and contentious experience with it comes across pretty damn clear, or at least it does for me reading it back nowadays.

After Everything (2023) - Movie Review

Well… it had to end eventually. I mean, yeah, this still has a prequel and sequel in the works, but as far as the main story that is the increasingly fucked-up relationship of Hardin and Tessa, this is meant to be the finale. And with the unholy bombshell that the last film ended with, I am once again morbidly curious about how they could possibly follow that up and, more pertinently, how they could make things even worse. And sure enough, they found a way.

Allelujah (2023) - Movie Review

It’s Shitty Plot Twist time again!

Yep, we’ve got another film where my usual attempts at weave around story specifics for the sake of spoilers (as I’ve said before, I don’t like the idea of ruining the experience of a film for anyone, even if I personally didn’t care for it) are rendered moot because the narrative not only hinges on a major twist, but so does the film’s efficacy as a whole. This is the kind of shift that had me going from generally liking the film, albeit not all that enthusiastically, to having a confused slack-jawed look plastered on my face for the entire ride home from the cinema. It has been quite a while since a single moment has so utterly demolished the rest of the film around it, but that’s what we’ve got here.