It is a strength of the new Star Wars saga that John Boyega's leading man credentials haven't been fully verified yet - those films have shared the limelight around. With Pacific Rim Uprising, he demonstrates that his wit and charm can carry a movie - a shame, then, that this one is reluctant to let him do so. … Continue reading Pacific Rim Uprising
The fruits of a titanic individual effort are rarely conventional. Chinese animator Liu Jian's independently conceived and created Have a Nice Day is a brief, stylish noir thriller that the Chinese tourism board is unlikely to love. Our story is centred around a bag of illicit cash, the proceeds of racketeering and mob rule. At first stolen … Continue reading Have a Nice Day
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, 2013’s Tomb Raider should be proud; 2018’s film version has tried gamely to copy its stellar reboot of a tired franchise, but in compressing its lessons and arcs has lost all of that game’s nuance. Alicia Vikander steps into the role haughtily popularised by Angelina Jolie in the frankly … Continue reading Tomb Raider
Ruben Östlund’s new satire, The Square, is an epic shot across the bows of the art world, savaging pretension and selfishness. It is almost certainly overlong and over-ambitious, but contains moments of sparkling wit and toe-curling discomfort, and some truly memorable imagery. Claes Bang, whom only Scandi fans will likely recognise, is the achingly cool Christian, curator … Continue reading The Square
Alex Garland is developing a justified reputation as an auteur for our times - he has written well-liked genre films, from 28 Days Later to Dredd, alongside a pair of the more thoughtful narrative games of this decade, DMC and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. His directorial debut Ex Machina cemented his position as a rising genre star, and his … Continue reading Annihilation
Lynne Ramsay’s new film nods heavily to Taxi Driver but offers a pleasingly individual and characterful take on isolation and trauma. It is taut and considered, carefully brutal, and produces a number of artfully crafted and sensitive shocks. Joaquin Phoenix is Joe, a quiet veteran who lives with his aging and declining mother in New York. His … Continue reading You Were Never Really Here
Netflix's quest for cinematic world domination continues with Duncan Jones's new film, Mute. The director of eerie cult classic Moon and the sprightly Source Code has demonstrated the fallacy of Netflix's model, however, with a frankly dull science fiction thriller. Alexander Skarsgård is the film's central and titular mute, a future-Amish man named Leo who won't have his vocal chords … Continue reading Mute
