So very aware of itself. Ryan Reynolds does his Deadpool shtick as the high end art thief, taking Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot along for the fast talking ride. Fun while it lasted but not a ride I’d go back to.
Red Notice (2021)
Trailer: Focus Features: The Card Counter
The Guilty (2021)
Tightly written. Beautifully paced. Gyllenhaal’s performance is stellar as the pent up ball of frustration call handler trying to save an abducted woman. But nothing is as it seems when it’s all at the other end of a phone.
Trailer: Netflix: Army of the Dead
I’m a big fan of Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake of George A. Romero’s classic Dawn of the Dead (1978). Snyder’s version is less of a social commentary than Romero’s but James Gunn’s screenplay has a punchy irony that adds to the gory thrills. I really hope the insanity in the trailer for Army delivers. It has the feel the third act from Snyder’s Dawn, that feeling of insurmountable odds.
There is one thing from the trailer that bothers me. I ‘m not sure about “smart” zombies. Just the idea of a strategising zombie seems to contradict the nature of being undead. I hope Snyder doesn’t give the zombies too much agency. Zombies are mindless agents of instinct, flesh eating monster, not wild animals.
The truth is, it really doesn’t matter what they are, I’m still going to watch the movie.
Tribes of Europa (2021)
Philip Koch was inspired to create Tribes of Europa (2021) by the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union in 2016. I see no evidence that the European Union is at risk from the United Kingdom’s decision. Equally it’s not hard to imagine a post-apocalyptic future in which fudal tribes fight over scares resources. In this world an unknown cataclysm has flung the world back into the dark ages.
As is usual in these things some vestiges of the old world still exist. There are a few cars and some military trucks, the odd electric light, electronic key cards, recorded television programmes, high velocity weapons, forges able to manufacture razor sharp blades, and electricity enough to play trance music. Actually this apocalypse is less like the dark ages and more like the late seventies. That time before computers, mobile phones, or the internet. I suppose for some, life without social media is an apocalypse.
The plot kicks off when the plane of a technologically capable tribe, the Atlantians, crashes near the village of the peaceful Origine tribe. Desperate to get control the Atlantian’s technology, an innocuous looking cube, the larger more aggressive Crows attack the Origine camp, killing or capturing most of the tribe.
The Crows look like gothic cyberpunks, if the punks appropriated the look of some indigenous North American clan. Dressed in black, with topknots, and replicant eye makeup, they wouldn’t be out of place in the wastelands of Mad Max.
From this encounter three siblings from the Origines tribe are forced to confront the terrors of this new world order. They’re innocents in a world of duplicitous aggression, destined to become idealists corrupted by necessity.
Overall I like the idea but the execution feels over designed, and in many ways the plot’s too narrow. They tug at Europe’s troubled history, without really explaining the collapse of Europe, or the formation of the tribes. These are complex cultures that would’ve taken centuries to define themselves in these specific terms. Not the fifty or so years since the collapse of information technology.
Perhaps that’s why the six episodes leaves you wanting more, but it’s probably because the whole thing is two acts, and four episodes short. Hopefully series two will fill out the plot, and provide answers where there are now gaping holes.
Red Dot (2021)
A young couple, Nanna Blondell and Anastasios Soulis, head for the wilds of Sweden hoping to rekindle the romance in their troubled relationship.
As they lay together under the flickering green of the northern lights, Blondell’s Nadja reveals she’s pregnant. This happy news has hardly escaped her lips when a red dot, the laser sight from a rifle, appears on the side of the tent. When a shot is fired they’re sent fleeing into the wilderness, and a desperate fight for their lives.
Alain Darborg does a great job directing a tight script from first time writer Per Dickson. He keeps the action flowing and the turns twisting. Heaping one revelation on another until the bitter end. You know that taste you get when you chew a pill? It’s that kind of bitter. With an aftertaste. No one escapes this film unscathed.
Space Sweepers (2021)
Enjoyable live action anime.
His House (2020)
The trauma carried by refugees forms the basis for this low budget ghost story. A couple escaping from the ravages of war torn South Sudan, land in a hostile town in England. Their struggle to adjust is hampered by the ghosts of impossible choices. Performances are brilliant, as is a tight screenplay. I’m interested to see what’s next for first time writer director Remi Weekes.
The Boys in the Band (2020)
Quite possibly the most startling piece of writing I’ve discovered this year. The thing that’s most revealing, that you need to take into account, is that it’s a remake of a film from 1970, that is an adaptation of a play from the late sixties. Chastised by a single location, it’s very much a stage play turned into a film. It burrows deep into the psyche of seven friends, as they each deal with the pressure of loving a person, or persons, of the same sex. It feels like I walked in on the most primal encounter. More than a confessional, it spurts it’s revelations like spunk choking a throat.
Ratched – S:1 (2020– )
Compelling stuff that looks positively cinematic.
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