David Price directs Terence Knox, Paul Scherrer and Ryan Bollman in this sequel to โthe town with killer kids who worship cornโ horror.
Bitty. An obvious subplot involving a Native American expert has been shunted in during post production to beef it up. Some of the kills are OTT but everything around them is meh. Doesnโt even feature series figurehead Issac.
Trแบงn Anh Hรนng directs Juliette Binoche, Benoรฎt Magimel and Emmanuel Salinger in this French historical romance filmset in 1889 – depicting a romance between a cook and the gourmet she works for.
Yum! The first 45 minutes of this is just the ensemble prepping and cooking an elaborate feast in a grand country kitchen. Could have watched 2 hours of solely that pure sexy culinary ASMR easily. A relaxed romance with lush period details and the ever perfect Juliette Binoche. Cโest si bon!
Jalmari Helander directs Jorma Tommila, Stephen Lang and Richard Brake in this ultra-violent sequel to the unkilliable Finnish OAP actioner.
If the first one was a Spaghetti Western in WWII then this is Mad Max in the Soviet Union. Some of the ridiculous kills in this have a Buster Keaton-esque sense of the absurd. Not quite the stamp of the first entry but certainly bigger and bloodier.
Julia Ducournau directs Mรฉlissa Boros, Tahar Rahim and Golshifteh Farahani in this French art house flick about a schoolgirl who gets a dirty needle tattoo during blood borne virus hysteria.
More French extremity from Ducournau. This plays with harsh emotions and oppressive imagery to create a sensual nightmare-scape. The oppressive use of close-ups and a child at the centre of this matter of fact body horror meant I had to take a few breaks from the screen. Yeah, I felt faint and claustrophobic so I popped out a caught my breath, cooled down and had a glass of water. More than once. Alpha is a very overpowering piece of cinema, purposefully disorientating. I will say its ultimate attitude to explore HIV, Covid, addiction and generational trauma justify what a difficult watch it is. There are tremendous performances here, especially Rahimโs lost junkie uncle. Ducournau knows she has the goods, so seeds Easter Eggs and wild set pieces that hint at the ultimate revelations.
Edgar Wright directs Glen Powell, Josh Brolin and Colman Domingo in this sci-fi action comedy where a desperate anti-hero signs up for a game show where he will be hunted for 30 days.
First 90 minutes of this are a blast. I have seen Glen Powell compared to a lot of old school movie stars but his looks, charisma, machismo and self awareness probably hits closest to Eighties Kurt Russell. Yes, please! Wright dials back his house style but still cooks with oomph. The gory and cheesy Arnie adaptation played very fast and loose with the Stephen King source material. While now enjoyable as a nostalgic beer and pizza movie it has never been a revered classic. This is exactly the kinda thing from your childhood you donโt mind being revived and repackaged by the right creatives. Colourful, violent, silly and surprisingly satirical. TRM25 had meโฆ and then it lost me. The third act looks and feels like two of three major reshoots have happened. I donโt actually think they have but this definitely doesnโt stick the landing. The visuals weaken and flatten, the anarchy disappears, the pace slows. It becomes predictable and told through a wincing cock eye rather than active confidence. I donโt think it is sensible to introduce a major new character out of the blue at the start of your third act unless they are a Blofeld or a Lex Luthor type. And there are exciting character actors like Katy OโBrian, William H Macy and Michael Cera who get short shrift in the runtime. Still, Josh Brolin and Colman Domingo make the TV broadcast sequences thump and pump. Almost there and then hits a wobbly standstill.
Rob Bowman directs David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and Martin Landau in this big screen continuation of the hit sci-fi TV series where Mulder and Scully must rebel against the government cover-up of a conspiracy and find the truth about an alien colonization of Earth.
The helicopter budget for this was off the chain. Feels very much still like the TV show only slicker. The Stone Age prologue is a good indicator of the new found freedom the movie format allows. That aside, there is nothing too fresh here but a visual sense of scale. The three big set pieces are solid. The FBI building bomb threat kick starts things nicely and the strange white structures full of bees are memorable (even if the swarming peril is short lived). So it has cinematic polish. The plot and revelations are nothing unexpected if you have even casually watched the โconspiracyโ episodes of the series and, personally, Iโm a monster-of-the-week guy. Interesting that some of the big reveals teased and set-up here were never revisited. I guess ultimately this blockbuster attempt to indoctrinate newbies and reward fans with a prestige bonus at least realigned Mulder and Scully back onto the same synchronisation. The season preceding this saw them separate for whole arcs at a time. The Duchovny and Anderson chemistry was a huge part of the seriesโ success and longevity. This multiplex excursion refocuses that winning element going forward.
6
Perfect Double Bill: The X-Files: I Want To Believe (2008)
Mohammad Rasoulof directs Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh and Setareh Maleki in this Iranian thriller set around an investigating judgeโs family during youth protests that are being violently suppressed.
Claustrophobic drama told mainly from the POV of the women of a middle class Tehran family. They live in the relative safety of their confined apartment. Aspiring to the better life that the fatherโs promotion should bring but reacting emotionally to the injustices he is a part of. They and we witness a student uprising through social media, but then it is arrives dangerously on their doorstep and soon it has destroyed their family. Constant pressure cooker. Not the most cheery movie ever made but a challenging watch not afraid of complicity, irony and moral grey areas.
7
Perfect Double Bill: It Was Just An Accident (2025)
Anthony Waller directs Marina Zudina, Fay Ripley and Oleg Yankovsky in this meta thriller where a mute make-up artist gets trapped inside a Russian move studio overnight where two psychos are making a snuff movie.
A videoshop rental favourite from back in the day. Zudina is a fantastic lead – cute, vulnerable and resourceful in equal measures. Whatever happened to her? Waller directs his heart out for the opening 45 minutes. It is an absolutely gruelling game of cat and mouse that recalls Hitchcock and De Palma. Nail biting stuff that should have given the neophyte director a blank check to make whatever he wanted for the next twenty years. Sadly he followed this up with An American Werewolf In Paris. And I think I was the only person to see that at the cinemaโฆ The second half of Mute Witness has a couple equally strong if smaller set pieces but the espionage subplot is too silly and too loose after the show stopping calling card of that bravura movie studio extended chase sequence. It ainโt bad but so convoluted. It seemingly exists so Waller can splice in footage of Alec Guinness that he shot one lucky night eight years earlier. Waller may not have had a Tarantinoโs or a Danny Boyleโs career but you have to admire the grift.
Sam Weisman directs Emilio Estevez, Kathryn Erbe and Michael Tucker in this sequel to Champions.
I really like Emilio Estevez and I love my wife. There are like a billion characters in the competent kids movie. Joshua Jackson and Keenan are floating around in the mix.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 