BETTER MAN is rated R, has a running time of 134 minutes, and was released in the USA on Christmas Day and UK on Boxing Day.
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
BETTER MAN*****
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL****
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL has a running time of 95 minutes and is rated R. It played the BFI London Film Festival 2024 and will be released in the UK on February 14th 2025. It was released in the USA in October.
Monday, December 30, 2024
MY OLD ASS***
MY OLD ASS is rated R, has a running time of 89 minutes, and was released in September.
THE OUTRUN*****
THE OUTRUN is rated R and has a running time of 118 minutes. It played Sundance 2024 and was released in the UK in September and in the USA in October.
SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE*****
Director Tim Mielants has delivered a quiet masterpiece in this film set in early 80s Ireland and based on the equally powerful, slippery novel by Clare Keegan with a screenplay by the writer Enda Walsh (HUNGER).
SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 98 minutes. It played Berlin 2024 and was released in the USA and UK in November.
JUROR #2****
Sunday, December 29, 2024
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM**
RUMOURS***
RUMOURS is rated R and has a running time of 104 minutes. It played Cannes 2024 and opened in October in the USA and earlier this month in the UK.
THE RETURN**
THE RETURN is rated R and has a running time of 116 minutes. It was released on Prime Video earlier this month.
CARRY-ON**
CARRY-ON is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 119 minutes. It was released on Netflix earlier this month.
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE*
The original 1984 GHOSTBUSTERS was a thing of perfection - inventive, hilarious, perilous, epic, buddy-bromance intimate. For decades, people have been trying and failing to resurrect its unique magic, not least SATURDAY NIGHT's Jason Reitman - son of the guy who directed the original.
Unfortunately, FROZEN EMPIRE is no exception to the sucky sequel rule. It's a bloated film, both in terms of characters and running time, with disappointingly few moments of levity and no actual jump scares.
In this contemporary retelling Egon Spengler's daughter (Carrie Coon - The Gilded Age) has taken over the family business with her two kids and partner (Paul Rudd). There's a plot line about how hard it is to be a bonus dad and how the teenage daughter's only pal is a ghost in what may or may not be a queer relationship. Meanwhile, a MacGuffin owned by some guy played by Kumail Nanjiani is about to unleash hell on earth and only the old school ghostbusters can stop it. Ray (Dan Ackroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) - now conveniently rich - do most of the heavy lifting here. We get a cameo from Bill Murray as Venkman and that's literally the only scene that's actually funny. Kumail Nanjiani tries, but he can't carry a film this bloated on his own.
Enough already.
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE has a running time of 115 minutes and is rated PG-13. It was released in March 2024.
WICKED LITTLE LETTERS**
WICKED LITTLE LETTERS has a running time of 100 minutes and is rated R. It was released in the UK in February 2024.
Saturday, December 28, 2024
WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL*****
WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL is rated PG and has a running time of 79 minutes. It was released on BBC One in the UK on Christmas Day and will be released on Netflix on January 3rd.
BEATLES '64****
Producer Martin Scorsese and director David Tedeschi (THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT) have created something rather wonderful in this slice of history carefully contextualised and constructed. They begin with archive footage from the legendary Maysles brothers who were present at the peak of Beatlemania when the lads landed in JFK and played The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. We see them at press conferences, and follow them into their hotel suite, hostages to the screaming fans outside. We follow them to a US Embassy reception where John is pissed off by the snobbery. And we see the contemporary fans interviewed in all their teenage hysteria, or casual indifference as is the case of some jazz loving black teenagers in Harlem.
ELTON JOHN: NEVER TOO LATE** - BFI London Film Festival 2024 - Day 2
I was desperately disappointed by this new documentary by the iconic R J Cutler (BILLIE EILISH: THE WORLD'S A LITTLE BLURRY) and Elton's husband David Furnish. The framing device is Elton preparing for his final American gig at Dodger Stadium, which then allows Elton to take us back to the height of his fame and his epic 1975 Dodger Stadium gigs. Don't get me wrong. Elton is an astoundingly good musician and performer and so charmingly candid about his life that he makes for an interesting subject. The problem is that there wasn't anything here that hadn't already been explored in the wonderfully entertaining and deeply moving ROCKETMAN. In that film we get the suburban childhood and gigging, the rebellion into rock and roll, the insecurity over appearance, the confusion over sexuality, the drug addiction and domestic abuse. I guess what we get here is the framing device - the miraculous recovery and fulfilled family life - but unfortunately that's not where the focus really is. The balance is far more to the looking back to the career. As a result, this doc just felt a bit redundant.
JOY**
Director Ben Taylor (Sex Education) and writer Jack Thorne (ENOLA HOLMES) deliver a rather earnest but tepid biopic about the scientists who developed IVF. Maybe earnestness is what this topic requires, but it does rather strain the two-hour running time.
THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA*
THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA has a running time of 89 minutes and was released in the UK in April 2024.
THE UNDERDOGGS****
THE UNDERDOGS is rated R, has a running time of 96 minutes, and was released on Prime Video in January 2024.
MOTHER'S INSTINCT*
MOTHER'S INSTINCT was released back in March 2024, has a running time of 94 minutes, and is rated R.
PIECE BY PIECE**** - BFI London Film Festival 2024 - Closing Night Gala
PIECE BY PIECE is rated PG and has a running time of 93 minutes. It played Toronto and London 2024 and was released in October.
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT***** - BFI London Film Festival 2024
INSIDE OUT 2***
INSIDE OUT 2 was released this summer and has made just shy of USD1.7bn and counting on a USD200m budget. So two things are certain. 1) No-one needs another review of this film because everyone has already seen it. 2) Bob Iger is for sure gonna greenlight a threequel.
I found the film to be charming and spot on about the perils of puberty but basically blah. Maybe I am spoiled - the stunning animation and creativity are literally something I have seen before. The novelty and sheer heart of the first instalment got me all choked up in the threatre. This one, I admired, but it didn't hit me emotionally. Plus, I am hardly the target demographic.
Our protagonist Riley is now a 13 year old good kid dealing with increased anxiety and envy at the onset of puberty. She is sent to a sports camp with her two childhood best friends and faces the twin evils of wanting to hang with the cool kids, and doubting she is good enough to make the team. But of course, as we know she's a good kid, so no actual peril there.
Meanwhile, inside her head, the emotions we have come to know and love are joined by new puberty-laden baggage, and we get a new concept - the Sense of Self. The message here is that it's damaging to try and only use good memories and feelings to create a Sense of Self. You have to let the bad stuff in too, and deal with it, and grow from it, and love it. So enough with the helicopter parenting parents!
Yep, Amy Poehler's Joy is very much the target of all those books I have been reading by NYU Professor Jonathan Haidt about the dangers of molly coddling kids in the real world, but letting them run wild in the virtual world. So as much as this film is aimed at kids, parents take note!
INSIDE OUT 2 has a running time of 96 minutes and is rated PG.