William Eubank directs Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel and Jessica Henwick in this sci-fi disaster movie where a deep sea drilling rig is breached and the few survivors have to race to safety against falling oxygen levels, shifts in pressure and mysterious killer beasties.
As Alien rip-offs go this is slavishly faithful. The credits and the production design and the score and the graphic read-outs and the one size fits all casting and the set-pieces could all be assembled from forgotten drafts and unapproved sketches and discarded storyboards and ignored studio notes from Ripley’s off world adventures. Now there’ll be some who will find rehashing a film from 40 years ago with very few new aspects added the height of foolishness. But for some of us, we never got quite enough pure Alien… not even enough well budgeted “Alien… But Underwater!” mash-ups. I’m in the minority but I’d go see a new one of these every month. Why reinvent the wheel? The monsters are Lovecraftian terrors, the opening act is a take no prisoners rush and if you read this blog then you know of my massive soft spots for both Cassell and Stewart. TJ Miller does guff a section out as a very poor man’s Ryan Reynolds but the loudmouth sore thumb is credited as “… AND TJ MILLER” so you know he isn’t going to be a permanent handicap to the action. Sometimes you just want to watch a thing run its rail.
Bong Joon-Ho directs Song Kang-ho, Jang Hye-jin and Choi Woo-shik in this dark satirical thriller where an unemployed family con their way in to becoming the help for a rich household only to uncover disturbing truths.
One of the pleasures of Parasite is going in as blind as possible. It is a plot that twists and turns almost constantly and to get full pleasure from it you’ll want as little spoiled as possible. Mainstream audiences are often impressed by releases that execute one great narrative rug pull but Parasite has at least three. To steal them prematurely from anyone would be a crime. Possibly it is best to just compare Parasite to the quality films it evokes and if you recognise a few favourites then you know Parasite is for you.
Like all Bong Joon-Ho’s back catalogue, here is a film that defies strict genre adherence – switching from farce to thriller to horror to drama. While sometimes, with The Host or Okja for example, this creates a tonally awkward aftertaste here he blends the phasing from one mode to the next expertly. There is the barbed social wit of a Billy Wilder movie, the disturbing maze-like setting of The Shining, the silent rich versus poor battles of La Régle Du Jeu. I enjoyed the Cinderella aspects of the visuals and note when one major character leaves the party in a rush there are abandoned shoes on the stairs they take. The more violent class war aspects explored in Jordan Peele’s Us are echoed here. There is an apocalyptic flood at one point where toilets spew sewage that feels like a witch’s curse or a biblical plague… one character, rather wonderfully, just sits and has a fag like she expected nothing less from the day.
I always saw in the skeleton of the script a structural borrowing from The Shawshank Redemption. The industrious but down on their luck Kims are characters trapped by financial circumstances and then they find themselves unwittingly breaking into a new prison. This conjures up lots of mini-chapters from a scheme involving peaches to a night spent under the coffee table. Each part, like Shawshank can be split into its own marvellous short story meaning the entire two hours is incredibly dense – rich with detailed characters and overwhelming incidences.
The final coda also shares the hidden message narration, openness and uncertain “happy ending” of the beloved prison drama. What unfurls in the aftermath can be interpreted in a variety of different ways… some flash-forwards can easily be dismissed as cruel fantasy but if you consider our final narrator’s mental state surely all of the last ten minutes needs to be read through a set of eyes with a very shaky, damaged grip of reality. Maybe the family living in the brutalist fortress by close of play don’t look that different after all? Their pictures are arranged the same way? Their diet hasn’t changed? Like Inception, does Parasite have a deeper twist than its most obvious ultimate one?
The joy of Parasite is that here is a film packed with cheeky foreshadowing, clues, misdirection (that “metaphorical” rock!). This obviously opens it up to repeat viewings and continued discussion. Yet I don’t think I’ll revisit it as often as the warm, salty hug of its Oscar predecessor Green Book. It is not as risky or as laugh out loud funny as the equally bleak Birdman. Compared to other Best Picture Winners it is a worthy addition to the pantheon but maybe one that might struggle to become a true favourite in The Carroll Household. That is no diss on Bong Joon-Ho’s precise and elegant direction or the superlative ensemble works which allows all characters to have their fiery moment when their mask slips. I just get the feeling Parasite for me will be a film I admire more than love, respect more than obsess further over.
Michael Bay directs Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in this espionage action comedy where a set of anonymous experts fake their deaths and try to right the world’s wrongs.
Bright, brash and smug. The incoherent time structure strings together three big and not unenjoyable set-pieces. The stuff inbetween is pretty repetitive and predictable. Reynolds gets to have a few crowbarred scenes in where he sasses an authority figure and gets the girl. Very paint by numbers, but hits the dumb pleasure target if not the exact spot.
Luc Besson directs Pierre Jolivet, Jean Bouise and Jean Reno in this post-apocalyptic adventure where a pilot and a doctor find themselves besieged by a brute.
A future without dialogue – images of survival in abandoned office blocks and fallout zones. Armour made of sporting goods and weapons of simple ingenuity. It looks great, the sexual politics stink and the arty take on nu-medieval desolation is convincing. The jaunty synth score by Eric Serra is simultaneously the best thing about the whole production and the one element that really doesn’t chime with everything else. As debuts go Besson made a fine first attempt.
Michael Almereyda directs Peter Sarsgaard, Winona Ryder and Jim Gaffigan in this biopic of social psychologist Stanley Milgram, the genius behind some of the most infamous experiments around human interaction of the 20th Century.
A dark horse in that it takes the currently stale life story subgenre and breathes some fucking life into it. It helps that Milgram’s work is so fascinating and the ethics of his methods leaves unresolved ground for conflict. It helps that Sarsgaard brings his inherent quirk and untrustworthiness (a creepiness that Hollywood has mined for multiple dozen villains over the years) and repurposes it into an intelligent, flawed outsider. It helps that Almerayda’s stark visual choices first seem obtuse and synthetic but slowly make sense given its subject’s take on reality and obedience to normative behaviour. And the always compelling Ryder shines in the “underwritten” wife role. A bottom shelf, behind the display spinner gem well worth getting down on your haunches and finding in your video rental shop of choice.
Josh Safdie directs Eleonore Hendricks, himself and Jordan Zaldez in this mumblecore crime drama about a New York pickpocket on a kleptomaniac spree.
Never has a film reminded me so much of the music video for Daft Punk’s Da Funk. We wander around aimlessly, lonely, witnessing cute Eleonore commit her small crimes. It all adds up to nothing. We shift into a joyride of unrequited romance and then low rent fantasy. She eventually nicks a copy of The Taking of Pelham 123. You enjoy that Eleonore. It is a good ‘un. Big up Manhattan guerilla location shoots.
Yeon Sang-ho directs Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi and Ma Dong-seok in this zombie actioner where a group of mismatched commuters are stuck on a train during a pandemic where the infected are on board and at every stop.
Really involving for the first 90 minutes but then gets a little too repetitive. Ma Dong-seok makes a lasting impression as the working class man of action stuck with more selfish, useless protagonists. Fast moving carnage, neat gore.
William A. Fraker directs Lee Marvin, Jeanne Moreau and Jack Palance in this Western drama where a wild but likeable cowboy sees the world changing faster than he can figure out what to do with himself.
A very amiable, ambling swansong to the frontier… much like Lonely Are the Brave but less didactic or The Wild Bunch but action-light. There is rowdy knockaround and a final drawn out shoot-out that resembles the ending of The Man With Golden Gun but within a cattle plant rather than an island lair. In the main though, Monte Walsh is deftly character orientated, essaying how Marvin’s unrefined outsider considers romance and civilisation and obsoletion over adventure, larks and freedom. Told with nice humour and humanity… hell, even Jack Palance plays a good guy in this.
Steven Spielberg directs Goldie Hawn, William Atherton and Ben Johnson in this police chase drama where a young mother breaks her beau out of jail to rescue their son from the Texas foster system.
Goldie Hawn is superb in this – oscillating from flighty mania to determined focus. It is a sharp, natural and attractive lead turn that slowly gets overpowered by car chases and shoot-outs. Spielberg finds himself a little lost in the set-pieces here… happier to remake an Americana, down home, fried chicken It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and leave his key pair (Hawn and an intense, young Atherton) in the back seat once they are put in motion. When he does touch base back with them and their naive Highway Patrol hostage, his character work is nimble and nice… But you can tell his heart is out there in the wide shots and action sequences. He doesn’t quite trust the humans in his toy box just yet. Like Duel and Jaws, this is a film of constant movement… like a shark or a truck. This one changes lanes quite often… sometimes cruising towards a sweet silliness, other times hurtling towards impending tragedy. By the midway point we stay in that adverse direction too rigidly… someone has definitely seen Bonnie & Clyde and taken copious notes. The unavoidable downer on the horizon sucks the small pleasures out of the ride. Marvellously shot by Vilmos Zsigmond (magic light, permanent sunset) this is a fine little film but, again like Duel, judged among the Spielbergian oeuvre it is mere scratch work before the masterpieces to come.
Chris Columbus directs Adam Sandler, Michelle Monaghan and Kevin James in this sci-fi comedy where a team of middle aged dorks take on an alien invasion of Earth that has modelled itself after the icons of 1980’s arcading.
Mix high concept with a team of mismatched comedy performers, garnish with special FX. Joins Men in Black and Evolution as a formulaic attempt to recreate Ghostbusters. Obviously Men in Black made proper dollar but I’m surprised there’s never been a better than average attempt to catch this elusive lightning in the bottle… discounting Ghostbusters II, of course! This is the epitome of watchable and undemanding. Yet Sandler’s brand of nostalgia, brashness and ensemble bluntness doesn’t really need blockbuster CGI sequences to drape its gilets, polo shirts and shellsuits over. Kevin James does nice work as the least likely actor to ever play the POTUS.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 