#8: MERCY

 

STARRING: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan and Kyle Rogers. Written by Marco van Belle. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov. Budget $60 million. Running time 100 minutes. 

It's the future, a bright, glorious future where AI is not only our friend, it's also our justice system, judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one and called Mercy and presidesed over by Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson). Crimbos who've committed capital crimes wake up strapped to a chair and have 90 minutes to prove their innocence or be executed on the spot. And case #19 is alcoholic LAPD Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) who wakes up after a bender to find himself strapped into the chair and facing execution for the murder of his wife. Naturally he's innocent, but can he prove it? What makes it even more amazing is that Raven is the cop who sent the first criminal to the Mercy chair, hmmm, I wonder if that's connected? Now he has less time than the running time of the film to prove he's not guilty armed with only every single bit of digital information at Maddox's disposal from all phone records, CTV footage, emails, texts, smoke signals, morse-code, semaphore, and every other form of communication ever devised by man including every single photo ever saved to the cloud. Plus, the ability to phone whomever he wants to or needs to prove his innocence, and Maddox is more than keen to help him too. Oh, and the entire police force and all his buddies who are all keen to prove his innocence and willing to do whatever it is to save his life, despite all the evidence pointing to the fact Raven killed his wife in a crime of passion. But when Raven points out how was that possible when he had no passion for his wife, Maddox begins to believe he might just be what he says he is, innocent. Then he starts to uncover something that looks like a huge conspiracy and then it all goes ape-shit stupid.

Directed by Russian director Timur Nuruakhitovich Bekmambetov, he what directed such classics as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Unfriended and the extraordinarly awful 2025 classic War of the Worlds. Actually he also directed the much loved Night Watch and Wanted. This is a kinetic, frantic and frenzied action flick made more remarkable by fact that our two lead characters, Raven and Maddox are for 90% of this film just head and shoulder shots and sitting down, although that doesn't prevent everyone else running their little hearts out, or flying massive four-turbine man-sized drones, or engaging in chaotic gun battles to a pounding soundtrack. Actually it doesn't stop Raven either. 

The trouble is that what starts as quite an intriguing premise begins to spiral out of control as Hollywood demands their highly paid action-orientated hero get some action in the final act, but not before he manages to solve and uncover an utterly ridiculous conspiracy involving an half-ton of explosives hidden in a runaway truck and a conspiracy at the very heart of the Mercy program itself that if exposed to cause the very fabric LA society to come crashing down. 

Seriously.

Chris Pratt is beginning to wear thin, funny as hell in Parks and Recreations, highly amusing and charismatic in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1. and those two Marvel films with Thanos, he's being repositioned as a serious man of action and he just doesn't have the chops. Sure he's capable of sweating and frowning like a bitch, but that's about it. Although it's not really his fault in this, I suppose. The plot is so ridiculous there's not a lot he can do to salvage it. And spare a thought for Rebecca Ferguson who only exists from the neck up and doesn't even get to turn her head left or right, let alone smile, or frown. She's as one dimensional as her human co-star. 

Added to that is the plot that as it unravels becomes more and more ludicrous in its revelations. I mean you can guess who's the guilty parties right off the bat,  not through detection but through piss poor acting, then added to that is the fact the film suddenly changes gear, not once but twice in the final act, before ending with a shouty final face off which in turn triggers one last reveal before the whole film just ends with a jarring full-stop, leaving a huge question hanging as to what the outcome of these revelations would be to the fictitious world they take place in?

Mercy, I plead, please, Mercy.

4/10

#7: MULHOLLAND DRIVE

 

STARRING: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Ann Miller and Robert Forster. Written and directed by David Lynch. Cinematography Peter Deming. Budget $15 million. Running time 147 minutes. Originally released in 2001.

This is only one of two David Lynch films I've never seen before, this and Inland Empire. And I am so glad I got to see this again on the big screen, a true cinematic delight.  

The film seems to follow the life of actress called Rita played by Laura Harring, who following a car crash, awakens suffering amnesia, and stumbles into an empty house and into the life of a wannabe actress, Betty (Naomi Watts) just arrived in Hollywood, who having won a jitterbug competition, dreams of making it big. Together the two women try to uncover who Rita really is, the mystery of a blue key, a bag full of money she carries and who the mysterious Diane Selwyn is. At the same time multiple other characters carry on their extraordinary lives revealing a twilight world of corruption, murder, movie making and several other unexplained mysteries. And as the film and its octopus-like threads seemingly coagulate, a blue box matching the colour of the key is found and opened and everything changes. And you realise that the whole film has been the fever-dream of a woman who's just committed suicide. But which woman and why?

Ultimately, like all of Lynch's films it's not the plot that's important, or the journey, it's the feelings it invokes, it's the emotions it stirs and it's the sense of impending dread and despair it pours into your soul. 

Lynch surely ranks up there with the likes of Kubrick as one of cinema's most unique creative talents. His films have a feel and quality which is instantly recognisable, from the sound design, to the visual look of it, the stilted almost amateurish acting style of his characters. The weird dream-lite quality of the dialogue and black as ink humour. No scene is safe from the deeply unsettling machine sounds that gnaw away at your psyche enhancing the sense of paranoia. And there's a grubbiness and an almost tactile feel to his films, that scratch away at you like a itch you can't scratch. Beyond the label of Neo-noir, his films simply defy classification, it simply is what it is, a dream that refuses to provide answers to any of the questions it throws at you, that's not it's role, it seems to be saying, that's up to you. Make of it what you will.

It's strange, deeply unsettling, engrossing, infuriating and profound and you'll either loathe it with a passion or love it to your core. There's a story there if you're looking but you'll need to work damn hard to fathom it out, and yet it all seems to come together at the end. Or does it?

And that's what sets this aside from any other film or film maker. Lynch doesn't seem to care what you make of his films. This, like Blue Velvet before it confounds your expectations and laughs in the face of simple logic, it just is what it is. 

And what that is, is a solid 10/10. 

#6: BLUE VELVET

 

STARRING: Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Hope Lange, George Dickerson and Dean Stockwell. Cinematography Frederick Elmes. Music by Angelo Badalamenti. Written and directed by David Lynch. Budget $6 million. Originally released in 1986. Running time: 120 minutes. 

College student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns home when his father suffers a near-fatal medical trauma that leaves him hospitalised. One day  Jeffrey finds a semi-decomposed human ear and takes it to the police station and Detective John Williams (George Dickerson), a family friend, who dissuades Jeffery from investigating any further. Later that night, he's approached by Williams' daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern) who tells Jeffrey about a mysterious woman called Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), a deeply troubled club singer who lives down the road from him, and believing the ear and her are somehow connected the young couple set off to investigate. But what starts off as exciting adventure soon becomes far more unpleasant when Jeffrey begins to unravel a sinister conspiracy involving Dorothy, Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) – a truly unhinged crime boss and his gang of henchmen. There's a underbelly of evil and violence in the quaint seemingly normal town of Lumberton that Jeffrey is about to be flung face-first into it.

Described as a Neo-Noir by better hacks than I, this was David Lynch's third movie as a director, and staked his auteur firmly into the filmic firmament. There is something deeply unsettling about the world of Blue Velvet and also something very familiar, you can see the fictional setting of Lumberton as a prototype Twin Peaks, what with it's connection with logging, diners, police stations and small town America. That and the darkness that pervades the town. Kyle MacLachlan plays Jeffrey as a bright-eyed innocent who believes that having a chipper outlook on life and a 'can-do' attitude will see him right. Boy, is he in for a rude awakening. 

This has a stunning sense of unease, it oozes from the screen, as Jeffery gets dragged further into the mayhem, he becomes burnished and changed and when Frank explodes into the fray you feel his unhinged rage. Played by Dennis Hopper, Frank is one of the greatest ever movie villains, from one second to the next he's so utterly unpredictable it's positively frightening, so much pent up rage and sexual violence, he's truly terrifying. Added to that Isabella Rossellini's character, a mother blackmailed into acquiescing to all of Frank's perverted demands. The scene where she finally has agency against someone is thrilling, even if it is against Jeffrey, who has to suffer it. 

This is so brilliantly unsettling, helped by the machine sounds that seems to throb and pulsate, there's an edge to it that's makes you itch. This is an astounding film, one I've not seen at the cinema in 40 years and the chance to see it back up on a huge screen was a true treat. 

Creepy, unsettling, and at times deeply unpleasant, but enough about my ex-sister-in-law. If you want to see something that Hollywood just doesn't make anymore, then get down to your local Cineworld as soon as you can because this deserves your complete and undivided attention. 

10/10

#5: HAMNET

 

STARRING: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson and Joe Alwyn. Screenplay by Chloe Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell. Based on the book Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. Directed by Chloe Zhao. Budget $35 million. Running time 126 minutes.

Charting the moment Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) spots his future wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) falls madly in love with her, within seconds they're married and she's in the family way and before you can say now is the winter of our discontent, she's given birth to twins, Hamnet (Jacobie Jupe) and Judith (Olivia Lynes), then spotting her hubby has an urge to write she sends him off to London to make his fortune selling handmade gloves. Then the black death hits, and Hamnet dies, while Shakespeare is away and Agnes isn't too happy about that, so Shakespeare follows some good advice about writing, in short write what you know and writes a play about losing his son Hamnet, but calls it Hamlet to protect the identity of its main inspiration and Agnes, pissed off that her husband is always at work rides off to London just in time to catch opening night of said new play. 

This is a beautifully made, well directed and well acted movie with a great soundtrack. But sadly it didn't move me any more deeply than that. I was warned to be prepared to cry buckets, well buckets were taken but narry a tear was shed. The trouble for me is everybody was trying just too hard to out act the other. Jessie Buckley is superb and this film belongs to her hook, line and sinker. Sadly Paul Mescal just comes across as a bungling somewhat belittled dweeb. The rest of the cast, in particular Emily Watson as Shaky's mum plays an absolute blinder, but boy is everyone acting their little boots off.  

So, the over acting just did my head in. That and the naturalist lighting. Look, Stanley Kubrick already did that to perfection with Barry Lydon and the use of candles to light scenes now just seems like an arrogant cry for acknowledgement. Look at me! It screams, or not, since it's rather dim. Anyway, when this film focuses on Agnes, who may or may not be bestowed with almost witch-like powers this film is a triumph, but too many scenes of people screaming with drool dripping down their faces sort of did me in, to a degree. And there's no mistaking that the end staging of Hamlet is absolutely stunning. I just wasn't moved more than that. I went in expecting to be reduced to a quivering wreck and I wasn't. As I was watching this i found my mind wandering as to what score to give it, it starts strong and i though, 'nice' this is a solid 9, then it started to dip and I found myself thinking oh god, this might just be a 7, then that final staging and I was finally won over. Sadly it was just a little too little, too late. Still, I'd recommend it greatly.  

Score wise, it's a solid 8/10

#4: 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE

 

STARRING: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Willims, Wrin Kellyman, Chi Lewis-Parry. Written by Alex Garland. Directed by Nia DaCosta. Budget $63 million. Running time 109 minutes.

Four films in and not only a sequel to 28 Years Later, the most recent film in this 25 year-old franchise, but also the second part to a planned trilogy, which makes this the Empire Strikes Back of the 28 Years Later saga.

This follows on exactly from where the last one left off, with young Spike (Alfie Williams) the runaway from a island community finding himself an unwilling member of The Jimmies, a truly diabolical satanic cult lead by the even more truly demented Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell). In the last film, Spike had taken his terminally ill mother off to the mainland in search of a cure for her brain cancer. There he'd met Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) a former GP who had dedicated his life to building a huge bone shrine, or 'temple' if you will to the dead. But now Spike is press-ganged into service to the terrifying Jimmys and forced to bear witness to their unbelievable savagery and believe me it's truly savage. Conditioned to accept that their leader is the actual son of Satan, the Jimmies are forced to question their faith when they come across the red-skinned Dr. Kelson and assmue he is actually 'Old Nick'. Meanwhile Dr. Kelson has been developing a relationship with a rage-infected Alpha male he's named Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry). Oh boy I bet this isn't going to end well.

Blimey, that was gruelling. Superbly directed by Nia DaCosta who carries the torch on from Danny Boyle and before handing the reigns over to Alex Garland for the concluding chapter next year. Shot on location, the film has a quality that revels in its rural setting and with most of it taking part in broad daylight this still manages to be profoundly unsettling and at times downright horrific, particularly when the Jimmies are doing their thing. But it's also the Jimmies and their deadly leader who drags the film down a notch, while the burgeoning relationship between Ian Kelson and Samson gives the film it's heart and soul, seriously there's a moment, reminiscent of Luc Besson's The Last Battle, that actually made the hairs on my arms stand up. Truly this whole aspect of the film is a joy to behold. 

Unfortunately because this is a sequel to last year's 28 Years Later it suffers as a result, it's just not quite as good, it doesn't have the same shock factor or the same sense of sheer panic. For me last year's offering was one of the top five films of the year and a worthy of the 9/10 I gave it, but this while still being a deeply engrossing and intense offering, just wasn't quite as enjoyable, or as satisfying. The story has more threads and the focus is diffused across several characters. Plus each time it leaves that of Kelson and Samson, you kinda feel sad and long for their return. 

Be warned this is a savage and nasty film the violence of the Jimmies is deeply disturbing and makes for uncomfortable viewing.  

Overall this builds to an astounding final confrontation and an extremely exciting coda that makes the wait for the third and final chapter a torture equivalent to that of waiting for Return of the Jedi, let's hope this one's conclusion won't be as diversive.

8/10

#3: RENTAL FAMILY

 

STARRING: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman and Akira Emoto. Written by Hikari and Stephen Glahut. Directed by Hikari. Running time 110 minutes.

Brendan Fraser is Phillip Vanderploeg a jobbing American actor who went to Japan to star in a toothpaste commercial, playing a superhero, and ended up staying. Seven years later he's living in a tiny apartment and struggling to make ends, taking small bit parts whenever he can. Just then fate comes knocking on his door when he's hired for a bit part, told to wear his black suit and to be at the location next morning. He does and finds himself at a funeral, in a room packed full of mourners and so begins his new career working for a Rental Family agency as an emotional surrogate, be it a 'Sad American', a husband, a father, friend, or journalist. At first Phillip is unsure and almost ruins his first proper assignment, but slowly he comes to terms with his role and even starts to revel in it, particularly as the 'acting' father to a young mixed-race girl, whose single mother is so desperate to get her daughter a place at an exclusive school that she hires Phillip to be her child's father. Slowly over time these roles help Phillip to recover his own humanity and his life begins to take on meaning again, but at what cost...

The very definition of a 'feel good' movie, this is good-natured, heart-warming and dare I say life-affirming. Brendan Fraser does a standout job as the lost actor and it's a treat to watch these ordinary people whose lives he touches re-ignite his  own passion for life. Running along side the main story we also follow two other members of the Rental Family staff, boss Shinji played by Takehiro Hira who is hiding a tragic secret that truly surprises when it's revealed, and Mari Yamamoto as Aiko, a fellow employoee who specialises in playing mistresses apologising to wives of unfaithful husbands. This never slips into over-sentimentalisation and the two key fake relationships at its core are both moving and poignant. 

But real star of the whole film is Japan itself, it's so rare to see the city of Tokyo like this, so large and vibrant and to witness the everyday life of the city, in fact it's infectious, you come for the story but you stay for the actual spectacle. You find yourself exploring the background lapping up all the strange everyday details and losing yourself in an utterly alien environments.  

Well directed, with a subtle soundtrack and beautiful cinematography this was a  deeply satisfying and touching movie and a true treat to watch. With no overt drama or action, or wise-cracking and once again an, to all purposes, a foreign language film that offers up a truly unique, naturally funny, and sensitive movie experience.

8/10 

#2: SENTIMENTAL VALUE

 

STARRING: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsodotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning. Written by Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier. Directed by Joachim Trier. Running time 133 minutes. 

This Norwegian drama sees two sisters, Nora and Agnes reconnecting with their father after decades of distance following the death of their mother, his wife, and the ownership of the family home. 

We are introduced to the Borg family through a truly beautiful sequence which sees the history of the family told from the house's point of view as retold by a story once written by the oldest Borg sister, Nora who's now an acclaimed Norwegian  stage actress (Renate Reinsve). She has major daddy issues stemming from the fact her father, celebrated film director Gustave Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) abandoned her, her mother, and her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) to pursue his own career. Now, Nora feelings of abandonment are starting to impact her life and jeopardise her stage career leading to crippling stage fright. So, when Gustave returns to Norway following the death of his wife to reclaim the family home the three of them are thrown together again. But Gustave has an ulterior motive. He wants Nora to play the lead in a film he's written about the life of his mother (a WWII Resistance Fighter) who committed suicide in the very family house at the centre of the story. When Nora flatly refuses he entices, Rachel Kemp – an American film-star (Ella Fanning) to take the part leading to more conflict. 

Yet another one of those films called a 'comedy/drama' which leans into the drama and whose only nods to comedy are a couple of amusing film-related gags. Norwegian films have a quality all of their own, measured, sombre, realistically acted and heavy on the pathos. 

As a result this was a hard slog, a film with some beautiful moments of acting, camera work and deep ponderings, which at the end of the day still leaves you bum numb and a tad fatigued. The trailer alludes to a more amusing film featuring Rachel and Nora, but that ultimately was a smoke screen. The glory of this film lies wholly in the hands of Skarsgård and Reinsve, he is phenomenal, his complete self-absorption making Gustave a deeply fascinating character. Nora clearly deeply damaged by her father is brilliantly played by Renate and the interaction between those two and Agnes is very satisfying to behold. 

Although ultimately this film offers nothing new on the dynamic of a broken father/daughter dynamic, it's just told through a different eye with a different agenda and that in itself is a delight to behold. Frankly I was in love with this with the opening narration told from the point of view of the house, and of the ending that is telegraphed early on in the film, which pays off brilliantly in the closing scene. 

A sombre and absorbing film with real heart. Sadly too long.

8/10