Tag: Universal Pictures

Review: Halloween Ends

When writing about any long-running horror franchise, it’s almost obligatory that you talk about its many deaths and resurrections. You might make a reference to the franchise being as ‘unkillable’ as its villain – in this case Michael Myers – and the many ups and downs so far. With HALLOWEEN ENDS, requel series director David Gordon Green ponders the very nature of life and death. Sort of.

Set several years after the events of the critically reviled Halloween Kills, the story opens on a hitherto unseen moment from Halloween night in 2019. Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) is babysitting, but when tragedy strikes the town blames him in perpetuity. Several years later, he meets Allyson Nelson (Andi Matichak) through her grandmother Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and the pair immediately fall for each other. Yet Laurie begins to suspect something is rotten in the state of Corey. If we’ve learned anything from the Halloween films, it’s to always listen to Laurie.

In Halloween Kills, the people of Haddonfield thought they could stop Michael by committee, and David Gordon Green seemed to think they could make a Halloween film in the same fashion. To his credit, he is consciously trying for something different here, this time focusing on the journey of a different killer. In some ways this makes it more akin to the non-canonical Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), although Green keeps his ties to the main series.

It’s a curious mix of styles though. Mostly eschewing a reliance on the traditional villain, Green takes his time in a leisurely first hour. Swinging from 80s teen romance to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, often in the same montage, one has to admit that we’ve never quite seen Halloween attempt something on this level. Through Laurie’s memoirs, the film asks some pretty big questions about the nature of evil, the notion of collective trauma, and how the absence of a villain can lead people to look for one. (You could probably read this as a commentary on the last few years of divisive US politics, but that would give it too much credit).

Yet Green – along with co-writers Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier and Danny McBride – fail to satisfactorily answer any of these puzzles. Caught between the old and the new, it becomes clear that in the attempt to make something new, the film almost forgets that it is part of a franchise. Scrambling to restore Michael Myers to the foreground, the film slides into a needlessly violent denouement. Yes, this is par for the course (and aimed at servicing the fans who whoop and cheer and every dismemberment), but it only exacerbates the feeling that the last hour of the film is an afterthought.

So, as HALLOWEEN ENDS literally carries the battered corpse of itself to a disposal unit, one wonders if there’s any life left in the old guard yet. For a franchise that has proven to be remarkably resilient over the last 44 years, Green’s latest finale perhaps proves that it’s time for Michael to go to the grave. At least for a while anyway. Halloween ends – and not a moment too soon.

2022 | USA | DIRECTOR: David Gordon Green | WRITERS: Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green | CAST: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Will Patton, Rohan Campbell, Kyle Richards | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 111 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 13 October 2022 (AUS), 14 October 2022 (US)

October 13, 2022
Review: Nope

Since his ostensible retirement from on-screen performance, Jordan Peele has continued to solidify his reputation as a filmmaker. Following breakout hit Get Out and his follow-up Us, not to mention producing BlacKkKlansman and Candyman, we now see him switch genres while maintaining his keen eye for social commentary.

So, as NOPE opens with the implication of a horrific chimpanzee incident during the taping of a sitcom, we know that we’re in for something unique. In the present day, ranch owners and Hollywood horse trainers Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David) and his son “OJ” (Daniel Kaluuya) are rained upon by ephemera from the sky, killed Otis in the process.

Months later, OJ and his sister Em (Keke Palmer) still try and maintain the struggling business. They’ve sold several horses to Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun), a former child star who owns a western themed ranch. Things take a turn when the electricity at Haywood Ranch starts going haywire — and there seems to be a UFO parked in a cloud above their property.

If we’ve learned anything from Peele’s previous work, it’s to not assume we know where any of this is going. He did produce and host a Twilight Zone revival after all. What unfolds is a cross between a giant monster movie and an exploration of long-term trauma. Case in point is the character of Jupe, who has buried the memory of an on-set chimp rampage with showmanship and commercialised bravado.

The genre shift in the last acts feels, just like Peele’s previous films, a gear change too far. It never quite brings together the various pieces in a satisfying way. Here the ideas are bountiful and provoking, but they lack focus. A massive set-piece ending showcases Peele’s ability to orchestrate large-scale action, even if the sequence goes on a beat or so too long.

Mind you, Peele’s cast is terrific. Kaluuya downplays Haywood, the antithesis of Palmer’s boundless energy, so that his deadpan reactions to creepy happenings add levity to the terror. Yeun is equally perfect with Jupe’s unwavering belief that his faith will see him right (although one wonders what dynamic original cast member Jesse Plemons would have brought to the table).

NOPE is stylish as all hell, filled with terrific character building and amazing set design. With this film, Peele begins to make his mark on something outside the horror world, and perhaps pushes sci-fi into smarter thrills in the process.

2022 | USA | DIRECTOR: Jordan Peele | WRITERS: Jordan Peele | CAST: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Wrenn Schmidt, Barbie Ferreira, Keith David | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 131 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 11 August 2022 (AUS), 22 July 2022 (US)

August 10, 2022
Review: The Northman

It’s been less than a decade since Robert Eggers landed on the scene with The Witch (2015). Yet in that short time he has consolidated his reputation, dropping the staggeringly esoteric The Lighthouse (2019) as proof of his ability to seamlessly blend horror and fantasy. So, when a deep narrative voice hails Odin at the start of his latest venture, you already know that it heralds the arrival of his grandest scale to date.

In 895, King Aurvandill War-Raven (Ethan Hawke) returns from war to his kingdom on the Irish Coast. He is greeted by his wife Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), and his son and heir, Prince Amleth (played as a child by Oscar Novak). Yet Aurvandill is betrayed by his brother Fjölnir (Claes Bang) and killed, while Amleth escapes into the wilderness.

Years later, Amleth (now a very buff Alexander Skarsgård) has led an anonymous life with the Vikings, who have raised him to be a berserker. When fighting in the land of the Rus, he receives a vision (from Björk no less!) that tells him vengeance can soon be his. Opportunity arises when he learns that Fjölnir has been overthrown and is now residing in exile in Iceland. Amleth sneaks aboard a slave ship and bides his time, working with Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy), a Rus woman who claims to be a sorceress.

THE NORTHMAN follows in the grand fantasy of John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981) and more recently David Lowery’s The Green Knight (2021) in fuelling its fantasy with equal doses of sex, mysticism and relentless violence. Steeped in blood magic and ritual, there are times when the men in animal skins and actual beasts are indiscernible. Starting with a key hallucinogenic scene early in the picture, one that features an all-too-brief appearance of a bearded Willem Dafoe, regular cutaways to masterfully rendered visions of Valhalla may have you believing in the Old Gods once again.

Backed by Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough’s pounding score, and Jarin Blaschke’s gorgeous photography of Ireland (standing in for Iceland), it’s a wholly transportative experience. Yet it’s also a savage one, constantly soaked in sweat and blood and making us tacitly complicit in the visceral spectacle. There’s one sequence in Rus, for example, that’s ostensibly a continuous shot of Amleth ripping his way through a village, and part of my brain was already cranking up Led Zeppelin. Later, when the “time of wrath-kindled revenge” begins, and twisted bodies turn up in the village, we’re tacitly encouraged to root for more bloody reprisals.

Which is where Eggers gets a little mired. Amleth bides his time to strike, drawing out the final act into a series of hit-and-run skirmishes that slowly build to the final confrontation by a fiery volcano. If it all feels a bit like The Lion King, it’s because the legend of Amleth is the same one that inspired Hamlet. Much like Shakespeare, the usually powerful figures of Taylor-Joy and Kidman are mostly confined to serve at the whims of men, even if Olga deftly avoids Ophelia’s fate. There’s even a few dashes of Oedipus for good measure. (Let’s not even get into the issues with the 56-year-old Kidman playing the mother of the 45-year-old Skarsgård, only two years after playing his wife on Big Little Lies). Fatal indecision translates into repetition, even if it is a handsome wheel to be tethered to.

From Eric Northman to THE NORTHMAN, Skarsgård embodies every inch of ancient Scandinavian aggression. With few words, he is the driving force behind this tale of slow revenge. As Eggers channels his singular vision into a $90 million budget, you may find the easiest path is to simply go with the flow. After all, it’s a world where you’re either a slave or the aggressor, so maybe it’s best to just submit to the endless violent delights with violence ends.

2022 | USA, China, Japan | DIRECTOR: Robert Eggers | WRITERS: Sjón, Robert Eggers | CAST: Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Björk, Willem Dafoe | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal (AUS), Focus Features (US) | RUNNING TIME: 137 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 21 April 2022 (AUS), 22 April 2022 (USA)

April 21, 2022
Review: Ambulance

The last decade has been an interesting one for Michael Bay. Although dominated by tentpole releases of various Transformers titles, he’s still managed to pepper his trademark blend of Bayhem throughout fun outings like Pain & Gain and 6 Underground. AMBULANCE, arriving with an energy that doesn’t let up for the duration, is a throwback of sorts to the films that defined him in the 90s.

It opens on a sharply topical moment, one in which war veteran Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is unable to secure medical funding for his wife. After reaching out to adopted brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) for help, he is soon dragged along as the driver on a federal bank heist that goes very wrong.

When a cop is shot, Will and Danny steal an ambulance and take EMT Cam Thompson (Eiza González) hostage. Pursued by no-nonsense LA cop Monroe (Garret Dillahunt) and FBI Agent Anson Clark (Keir O’Donnell), this series of characters coalesce into a singular railway event that does not stop for a second.

In terms of pure pace and adrenaline, it’s somewhat reminiscent of Speed, a film that came out in the same era as Bay’s first action flicks. There’s a vaguely claustrophobic element to the titular setting, one that adds to the tension of the whole affair, but Chris Fedak’s script operates on the principal of escalation. There’s a pile-on of new elements, from rival gangs to old friends, always threatening to topple over and upend the whole apple cart.

Instead, Bay discombobulates the viewer with the hyperkinetic nature of cinematographer Roberto De Angelis’ photography, pinging around like a kid hopped up on red cordial. A series of aerial drone shots work on the mechanics of a rollercoaster ride, swooping from high to low angles in a heartbeat. Bay’s trademark 360-degree shots have been elevated to featured player. You may scoff, but this is high-concept action cinema at its most immersive.

In the more ridiculous moments, González’s character performs surgery in a moving vehicle while getting instructions via videoconference. Yet this somehow only endears us to González all the more, an actor who does more to ground the film than any of the other players. Which is not to dismiss Abdul-Mateen, a kind of anti-hero for the film who adds gravitas and pathos to every scene he’s featured in. Gyllenhaal, continuing his series of remakes about Danish essential services (after The Guilty), gets to play an increasingly unhinged character he’s clearly enjoying as much as we do.

AMBULANCE may not change the way you think about movies, and nor should you expect this to be a west coast version of Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead. Even when swerving chaotically over the highways and byways of the City of Angels, Bay and Fedak know how to stick to the lanes that will drive them straight into maximum adrenaline for that moment.

2022 | USA | DIRECTOR: Michael Bay | WRITERS: Chris Fedak | CAST: Jake Gyllenhaal,Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 136 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 7 April 2022 (AUS), 8 April 2022 (USA)

April 6, 2022
Review: The Matrix Resurrections

In a year filled with nostalgic reboots, Lana Wachowski has quite literally set out to redefine that term. The latest film in the franchise harks right back to the original film in 1999, a year when Fight Club and The Phantom Menace polarised audiences for very different reasons. Now, eighteen years after The Matrix Revolutions, Wachowski presents something that is both a continuation and a reimagining of the original story.

Indeed, the opening scene of THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS is an almost shot-perfect replica of The Matrix’s cold open. As a representation of Trinity battles Agents, Bugs (Jessica Henwick) notices that old code is being used to send a message. It coincides with the appearance of a figure claiming to be Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Both share stories of having their eyes opened by a glimpse the long lost Neo (Keanu Reeves).

As the story slowly unfolds, it emerges that his alter ego Thomas Anderson is now working for a video game company, where he is the award-winning designer of a trilogy of Matrix games that mirror his past adventures. Retaining only dim memories of his former life, he is a suicide survivor who sees therapist (Neil Patrick Harris) to help him deal with an apparent mental illness. Yet when he meets Tiffany (Carrie Ann Moss), now married with children, an old connection reignites.

Lana Wachowski, working solo here due to Lilly Wachowski’s involvement with Showtime’s Work in Progress, appears to be stuck in a Matrix of her own. With co-writers David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) and Aleksandar Hemon, she attempts to examine what The Matrix has become in the last two decades. Multiple in-jokes about “our beloved parent company Warner Bros.” and the corporate nature of reboots at least acknowledges what they’ve got themselves into. It’s kind of like when Chuck Palahniuk revisited Fight Club and found himself incorporating fan and film canon into his metatextual graphic novel. After all, The Matrix been parodied in everything from Shrek to Space Jam 2, and recognising the role of the film in the pop cultural landscape is a clever move on Wachowski’s part.

So, it’s a shame that once this genuinely intriguing setup unfurls, THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS immediately falls back on old constructs. Although it acknowledges the ambiguous ending of The Matrix Revolutions, and resolves the presence of characters who apparently died in that film, many of the set-pieces follow the same path as the original. Neo still knows kung fu, there’s another Smith (this time Jonathan Groff) on his tail, and even a rooftop helicopter escape. Cinematographers Daniele Massaccesi and John Toll frame these shots with deliberate tips of the hat to Bill Pope’s 1999 photography, often replicating them wholesale.

Which isn’t to say that these sequences can’t be cool, as there’s a certain pleasure in returning to this world. The canonical video games notwithstanding, the universe that the Wachowskis created has always been ripe for further exploration – especially in an era where the lines between reality and fiction have become mainstream political discourse. Yet if you now consider the simultaneously shot Reloaded and Revolutions as the middle chapters of the overall narrative – ones that hold up remarkably well in retrospect – then RESURRECTIONS is an ersatz coda to a story that already ended.

There’s a scene where a group of game designers sit around trying to pitch each other ideas for the in-universe sequel, caught as they are in a cynical cycle of commercialism. The moment is meant to be satire, but it’s something of a microcosm of the whole reboot. Here is a film that still feels like it is workshopping ideas as the end credits roll, unsure why it exists but also determined to give the people what they think they want. So, in a way we really do get to experience exactly what it’s like being jacked into the Matrix.

2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: Lana Wachowski | WRITERS: Lana Wachowski, David Mitchell, Aleksandar Hemon | CAST: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Jada Pinkett Smith | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures/Warner Bros. (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 148 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 25 December 2021 (AUS)

December 22, 2021
Review: Dune

Frank Herbert’s stories have been on the sci-fi fantasy landscape long enough that everyone at has at least an idea of Dune. Whether it’s the endless swathes of sand or just really big worms, it has influenced countless productions and stories. After Alejandro Jodorowsky’s failed attempt, David Lynch’s problematic feature, and an under-budgeted mini-series, the book was largely thought to be unfilmable. At least until now.

Herbert’s work is sometimes difficult to follow let alone summarise, but here goes nothing. Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) moves to the desert planet of Arrakis when his family accepts control of it. The only source of the highly valuable resource known as spice, their arrival results in betrayal, assassination attempts, the prophecy of a religion known as the Bene Gesserit and an almost mystical force that drives Paul towards the native peoples known as the Fremen.

If Herbert’s novel was a kind of colonialist fantasy, crafting Paul as a white god-king to tribal peoples, then the opening to director Denis Villeneuve’s version aims to establish two things. Firstly, through the narrative voice of Chani (Zendaya) — who Paul sees in prophetic visions — this is a reclamation of the story from the perspective of its fictional native peoples. The other thing that’s apparent is that Villeneuve’s aesthetic vision is a staggeringly beautiful one.

Villenievue is no stranger to iconic sci-fi, having wowed audiences with Arrival and disappointed others with Blade Runner 2049. Yet from the moment DUNE opens, it’s clear there is something a bit different about this outing, carrying with it an almost mythical weight that filled this viewer with unexpected awe. It’s transportive, from the costume designs (that look more than a little Moebius inspired at times, keeping Jodorowsky’s dream alive) to the stunning vistas. Production designer Patrice Vermette achieved this through a combination of large scale sets and effects, crafting something truly immersive.

DUNE is still a deeply complicated outing, and it’s possible that if you haven’t got some familiarity with the source material you’ll find yourself a wee bit lost at times. The intricate balance between the machinations of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (an almost unrecognisable Stellan Skarsgård) and the will of the Bene Gesserit are hard enough to follow on page let alone in a 156 minute film. It’s still quite the chore here, especially given it only covers part of the book, but when it’s this pretty you’re paying attention the whole time.

Film Twitter favourite Chalamet brings an excellent balance of boyishness and almost otherworldly grace to his Paul Atreides. Similarly, Rebecca Ferguson is a standout as the Lady Jessica, Paul’s Bene Gesserit mother and consort to Duke Leto (a bearded Oscar Isaac). It’s hard to get a bead on Zendaya’s take on Chani, as the film wraps up before he more significant scenes take place. (One review refers to being ‘Zendaya baited’ given her more visible presence in the publicity). One suspects she’ll be a major player in the next chapter.

Being in Australia, where the non-festival release date isn’t until December, we already knew that a Part 2 had been greenlit. While one could argue that this is only ‘half a film,’ being armed with the knowledge that this isn’t trying to cram all of Herbert’s tome into a single picture allows us some breathing room. Indeed, it allows us to simply sit back and absorb this as the spectacle that it is.

2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: Denis Villeneuve | WRITER: Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, Eric Roth | CAST: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures (AUS), Warner Bros. Pictures (US) | RUNNING TIME: 156 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 8 November 2021 (SFF), 2 December 2021 (AUS), 21 October 2021 (US)

November 16, 2021
Review: No Time to Die

In October 2005, Eon Productions announced the casting of Daniel Craig. As the sixth actor to take on the role of James Bond in their successful film series, the announcement was not immediately embraced. Anti-fan sites launched campaigns that foreshadowed more commonplace social media assaults a decade later. Yet after Casino Royale was released in 2006, the critics were (mostly) silenced. Now, after 15 years and five outings, Craig’s self-contained saga comes full circle in a satisfying conclusion.

Picking up sometime after Spectre, Bond and Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) are hanging out in Southern Italy in extramarital bliss — until things go boom. Feeling betrayed, Bond leaves her on a train and disappears. Five years later, when an MI6 scientist is kidnapped, it’s unveiled that M (Ralph Fiennes) has been involved in the development of a programmable bioweapon with deadly accuracy. It gets into the hands of Safin (Rami Malek), a terrorist leader with ties to Madeleine’s past and his own agenda.

NO TIME TO DIE wastes very little of its time setting the scene before plunging us into the action. Opening with a gloriously shot prelude sequence that plays like a wintery horror western, the pre-title sequence involves an explosion, a bike chase and a bullet-riddled Aston Martin. It’s an acknowledgement of the things that make audiences turn up in droves, continually escalating through a kinetic Cuba sequence (with a wonderful cameo from Ana de Armas) to the inevitable secret lair showdown.

Yet more than anything, it’s about character. Not since George Lazenby’s short-lived stint in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service — a film that is referenced several times in this outing — has the notion of Bond been so thoroughly interrogated on screen. It’s there overtly, of course, in the presence of Nomi (Lashana Lynch) as the inheritor of the 007 mantle during Bond’s retirement. Yet in the film’s final act, where Safin characterises their dichotomy as “two heroes in a tragedy of their own making,” the film directly address who James Bond is when you strip away the armour.

The rest of the cast is impeccable, with only a handful of new friends joining a cast of familiars. Lynch is unquestionably the standout of the new faces, a capable equal for Bond and an indicator of where the series can go from here. Indeed, good money will be contributed to the Kickstarter that teams up de Armas and Lynch in a buddy spy film.

If director Fukunaga’s film stumbles, other than in the field of judicious editing, it is in the development of the villains. A key sequence featuring the return of Christoph Waltz as Blofeld is an excellent coda to Spectre, although it’s at the expense of the ostensible primary villain. Malek has a surprisingly small amount of screen time in the 163 minutes we spend in 007’s orbit, and we learn little beyond his appropriation of Japonisme as an aesthetic. Similarly, most of Seydoux’s progression seems to happen offscreen.

Is it territory we’ve seen partially covered before? A little, especially when you compare it with Skyfall. Is it way too long? As the longest film in the franchise history, undoubtedly. Yet as Daniel Craig’s last outing in the tux, it earns every inch of its blockbuster presence. As an unabashed fan of all things Bond, it satisfied a core part of my being while allowing me to bid farewell to arguably one of the greatest portrayals of the character in his 68 year history. So, yes, it’s a farewell of sorts, but you can always count on one thing: James Bond will return.

2021 | UK, USA | DIRECTOR: Cary Joji Fukunaga | WRITER: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Phoebe Waller-Bridge | CAST: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 163 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 11 November 2021 (AUS)

November 10, 2021
Review: Candyman

In the opening moments of Nia DaCosta’s CANDYMAN sequel, two things are abundantly clear. Like the 1992 original, it’s a film about Chicago, picking up on the social impact of Cabrini-Green’s public housing development. It’s also a film that’s still very much about race and class in America, and the horrors that are even more real than a vengeful spirit that appears in mirrors.

DaCosta’s update, cowritten with Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, is both a direct follow-up to Bernard Rose’s film — itself based on a Clive Barker short story — and a spiritual relaunch. From the cold open, in which we see a child’s shadow play of police terrorising the black population of Cabrini-Green in the 70s, it’s clear that the film’s core messages are also about the here and now.

The 2021 story picks up with Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a struggling visual artist who lives with his girlfriend Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), an art gallery director who supports his work. Anthony’s career is in arrested development until he picks up on the legend of the Candyman, the supernatural killer Daniel Robitaille (Tony Todd) who appears if you say his name in the mirror five times. As Anthony begins to explore the urban legends through his art, the Candyman is reborn in more ways than one.

Just as the original film established a firm sense of place, CANDYMAN 2021 sets out to show how the gentrification of historic black neighbourhoods have merely shifted the invisible (and sometimes very visible) class and race based lines. Indeed, long before we even get to brass tacks, we have lengthy establishing scenes in the lavish apartments and galleries of the rich. “White people built the ghetto and tore it down when they realised they built the ghetto,” say Anthony and his friends before someone asks if their rosé is still in the freezer.

When the violence begins, it is in these spaces: galleries, apartment blocks and other spaces typically protected by class privilege. The horror here, as DaCosta, Peele and Rosenfeld seem to be saying, is in those past crimes and atrocities quite literally coming back to kill us. It’s a long walk-up to get there at times, and even then some of the connective glue between scenes feels like it is missing. For example, there’s a series of asides where Anthony explores his past, and it really feels like there’s a much longer version of these sequences hanging around on the cutting room floor.

Which might be where CANDYMAN loses some modern audiences, especially those who like their slashers uncomplicated and their Candymen always visible. Reprising his role for the fourth time, Todd’s Robitaille is kept in the shadows for much of the film, taking a backseat to the personal horrors the narrative leads discover for themselves. By contrast, there’s a scene with teen girls standing in front of a bathroom mirror that seems inserted purely to add to the body count. Yet if the films Peele has previously been involved in have taught us anything, you don’t have to look far to find injustice beneath the surface.

On a technical level, it’s a slickly shot and stylish affair, with some inventive paper shadow puppet sequences recapping the past film entries, the film certainly succeeds in updating the style while remaining true to the core. Shot largely in the North Park area of Chicago, the city itself is a living entity. From the opening fog-filled shots through Chicago icons like the Marina City Towers through to exteriors elsewhere in the city, Chicago is a lead character that should get billing alongside Abdul-Mateen and Todd.

CANDYMAN is designed to be enjoyed on its own for a new generation of filmgoers, but the links it creates to the past entries serve the dual purpose of mirroring the historic and inherited nature of racial violence and prejudice in the city. Without spoiling anything here, DaCosta leaves the door wide open for future iterations and for the Candyman to return at any time. All you have to do is say his name.

2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: Nia DaCosta | WRITER: Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld, Nia DaCosta | CAST: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, Tony Todd | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 91 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 26 August 2021 (AUS), 27 August 2021 (US)

August 26, 2021
Review: Old

More than two decades on from his breakthrough hit The Sixth Sense (1999), M. Night Shyamalan has created everything from alien invasion stories to pop culture adaptations and subversions of the superhero genre. His career has been marked by so many ups and downs that his trademark twist may now be the times that he cranks out a surprise hit.

With OLD, inspired by the Swiss graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, he takes a back to basics approach. Guy (Gael García Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) take their two children on a tropical vacation at a luxury resort. Cracks are showing in their relationship, and the implication is that this is a last family trip before they separate.

Ignoring the Fantasy Island aesthetics, when their hosts offer to show them a secluded beach they jump at the chance. Soon they are stuck in a remote corner of paradise with a ragtag group of people. There’s a doctor (Rufus Sewell), his young wife (Abbey Lee), younger daughter and elderly mother (Kathleen Chalfant). There’s nurse Jarin (Ken Leung) and his epileptic wife Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird). There’s rapper Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre). There’s also a series of dead bodies, an inability to leave, and the phenomenon of rapid ageing.

OLD‘s high concept is a solid one: a throwback to an almost bygone era of genre flicks. The set-up is genuinely tense, as Shyamalan slowly sprinkles in unexplained phenomena and his dark sense of humour into a quasi-claustrophobic environment. Why is Mid-Sized Sedan’s nose bleeding? Who is watching them from the mountain? What’s up with Rufus Sewell being a jerk?

Yet once it gets going, it is relentlessly pacey. While somewhat appropriate in a film about accelerated ageing, Shyamalan gives the audience very little time to contemplate what’s happening — let alone absorb the latest revelation. Swinging from moment to moment, if it wasn’t for each character externalising their every thought, it would feel more like a rough draft than a completed project.

Compounding this is some stylistic weirdness. Shyamalan and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis seem determined to not show any object the characters might be focusing on, instead cutting to close-ups of faces of low-angled shots of walls and legs. At it’s best it’s just a bit odd, but becomes slightly laughable when we encounter the lurching final fate of Lee’s character. (It really needs to be seen to be believed).

As a character piece it mostly works well, especially in the first half of the film. Having said that, Bernal’s principal task seems to be to remind us he’s an actuary, providing an excuse for lots of lines about statistical improbabilities. This is true of most characters, who ultimately become fodder for the plot-driven narrative. Yet the introduction of Alex Wolff, Eliza Scanlen and the always reliable Thomasin McKenzie as the teenage version of the children adds a new energy.

If we’ve come to expect anything from Shyamalan, it’s the inevitable twist ending. Indeed, it’s not even a spoiler to suggest that one might be coming. The whole film plays out like a first act and an denouement, skipping the messy technicalities of a second act structure. Yet ultimately it all comes together in a mostly satisfying way, and it’s refreshing to see a thriller that’s unapologetically about getting in and doing the job with minimum hassle.

2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan | WRITER: M. Night Shyamalan (based on a graphic novel by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters) | CAST: Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Ken Leung, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abbey Lee, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff, Embeth Davidtz, Eliza Scanlen, Emun Elliott, Kathleen Chalfant, Thomasin McKenzie | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 108 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 22 July 2021 (AUS), 23 July 2021 (US)

July 23, 2021
Review: F9

It’s 2001. Actor Vin Diesel had turned in some fan favourite supporting performances in Saving Private Ryan and the cult hit Pitch Black. Director Rob Cohen casts him alongside The Skulls co-lead Paul Walker in The Fast and the Furious after Timothy Olyphant declined the role. The movie is Point Break on land, but it’s a success. Two decades later, it has spawned eight sequels, a spin-off and an animated series. This is Vin Diesel’s timeline, and we are just living it in.

Picking up some threads from The Fate of the Furious (or F8 if you’re nasty), F9 sees Dominic Toretto (Diesel) living the blissful family life in the country with his wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and son. When his old crew turns up with news that Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) has disappeared — and his McGuffin too — Dom reluctantly goes back into the field. Especially when he learns that his old foe Cipher (Charlize Theron) and a familiar face (John Cena) are involved.

From its humble street racing origins, the Fast and the Furious franchise has continuously relied on the principle of escalation. While the early entries attempted to be something of an anthology series on various racing crews, from the fourth entry onwards returning director Justin Lin has attempted something closer to a singular universe. The crew rapidly became mercenaries for hire, pseudo government agents and even super spies being chased by submarines.

This time out, Lin not only ties in his past entries — even making black sheep Tokyo Drift a central plot device — but quite literally shoots the franchise into the stratosphere. This means the return of some characters we thought were dead. It also means globetrotting from Montequinto to the Caspian Sea, Edinburgh, Cologne and, of course, Tokyo. Lucas Black turns up in a goofy cameo, as does a major past ally. (We won’t spoil it here, but some of the promotional posters do that already).

One of the more ambitious threads is a whole new backstory for young Dom in 1989 (played by Vinnie Bennett). Opening with flashbacks to a young Toretto on the racing circuit with his late father Jack (J.D. Pardo) and pit crew Buddy (Michael Rooker), it’s an arguably convoluted way to justify the introduction of a hitherto unmentioned Toretto sibling. More cynically, it could open the door for future spin-offs. Did someone say the Young Toretto Chronicles?

Yet we’d be lying if the main attraction wasn’t the action sequences. From the physics-defying bridge jump early in the film, there’s some impressive elements here. The biggest set-piece follows the series tradition of dragging stuff behind cars, and this time its super magnets instead of cables. Then there’s the rocket propelled car that slips the surly bonds of Earth and dances the skies on laughter-silvered wings. Yes, they really did it, right before killing a plane with a truck. Is it dumb? Hell yes it is. Is it my kind of dumb? See the previous answer.

At this point, having progressed from jacking DVD players to shooting a car into space, a sequel based around time travel is about the only place this franchise can go. Perhaps Toretto will get behind the wheel of a DeLorean in the ultimate Universal crossover. So, I’m calling it now: F10: Fast to the Future. Don’t pretend you wouldn’t be first in line to see it.

2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: Justin Lin | WRITERS: Daniel Casey, Justin Lin | CAST: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, John Cena, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Sung Kang, Michael Rooker, Helen Mirren, Kurt Russell, Charlize Theron | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 145 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 18 June 2021 (AUS), 25 June 2021 (US)

June 23, 2021