MADAME WEB**

New York, 2003. A tough cynical loner paramedic resents her dead mother for conducting dangerous experiments in South America while pregnant, so dying in childbirth. After an accident, the loner discovers she can see into the future and so prevent bad stuff happening. She also finds herself taking care of three young women who are being stalked by an evil villain in a spider suit. He's also had a vision that these wastrels are gonna kill him in the future. Meanwhile, our heroine's best friend and fellow paramedic Ben Parker's sister-in-law is about to go into labour.

The well known problem with MADAME WEB is that 15 years into the Marvel revolution nobody gives a shit. Dakota Johnson - whose low-key low-energy style suits many an indie film - definitely doesn't give a shit about a lead role she is miscast in. Tahar Rahim (NAPOLEON) and Zosia Mamet (Girls) is wasted as the baddie.  The three young women are given underwritten parts that are just a bag of tropes. Spoiled rich brat, nerdy shy girl etc. The action scenes from first-time feature director S J Clarkson are uninspired. The prologue is unnecessary. And the script is overlong with too many establishing examples of how being pre-cog works. The final shot features a now blind and paraplegic Madame Web hovering, masked, with her three proteges. It's a flash forward to a film nobody wants to see. 

MADAME WEB is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 113 minutes. It is on global release.

BLACK MASS - BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Day Six

BLACK MASS reminds me a lot of THE PROGRAM. Both are big glossy biopics on topics I am fascinated by, whose source books I have read, and whose cast and crew I admire. I found both to be well-made but ultimately rather dull linear paint-by-numbers narratives.  And in both cases, the real reason to watch are the outstanding acting performances.  In the case of BLACK MASS, that's Johnny Depp as the infamous South Boston gangster Jimmy "Whitey" Bulger and Joel Edgerton as his childhood friend FBI Agent John Connolly.

The story of BLACK MASS is so messed up you couldn't make it up, and speaks volumes about the incestuous corrupt politics of Boston in the 70s and 80s.  In what other universe of normality could Billy Bulger rise to be State Senator while at the same time openly consorting with his elder brother, a known felon?  And what kind of messed up world does their mutual childhood friend decide to co-opt Jimmy as an informant, so that while he and the FBI take down the mafia in a Rico case, Jimmy can move in on their territory?

SUNDANCE LONDON 2013 - Day 3 - A.C.O.D.

Writer-producer Stu Zicherman's directorial début is a heartfelt, sporadically funny but overwhelmingly tepid relationship comedy about a guy called Carter who is still so traumatised by his parents divorce that he derails his kid brother's wedding. Zicherman's contention is that his peer group of thirty something Americans is the first generation to have to deal with errant parents, step siblings and general emotional chaos, leaving hem with, at best, a bunch of practical coping mechanisms that hide deep set neuroses. They are the ACODs of the title - Adult Children Of Divorce. The protagonist in this film is a case in point. On the surface he seems in control, a classic manager of chaos. He's spent his life resenting his parents, protecting his younger siblings and seeking the stable in his girlfriend. But when forced to broker both of his parents turning up to his brother's wedding, he discovers that he was actually the subject of a book on kids dealing with divorce. And his evident continued difficulties sparks a sequel.

There's a lot to like in Ben Karlin and Zicherman's script. There are moments that feel authentic and clearly come from personal experience. Some of the verbal humour is also fantastically on point, and there are a fair few laugh out loud moments, mostly related to Carter's dad who is played by Richard Jenkins, and totally steals the movie. I also admire their courage in not having to tie up all the ends neatly. But set against this we have characters and sub plots that seem to go nowhere (Jessica Alba I'm looking at you), a highly contrived moment of catharsis in the final act, and, well, the casting of the lead actor.

Adam Scott is often the supporting actor in mainstream pictures: the classic decent boyfriend who has a side seat for the action. Maybe it's because he's not a conventionally Hollywood chiselled leading man? I think he's a decent actor but there's just something off about him in this role, and I've come to the conclusion that he's just not likeable or charismatic enough to carry a film. I know that sounds mean, and that many character actors are wonderful when given the stage - not least Richard Jenkins. I also realise that Scott is playing an uptight worriwort, and that isn't a role you'd think of as being fun to spend time with. But Carter is at the centre of this film and one must be happy spending time with him, otherwise the film doesn't hang together. Just imagine what the movie might have been like had it starred Andrew Lincoln or maybe Josh Radnor?

A.C.O.D. played Sundance and Sundance London 2013. It does not yet have a commercial release date.

A.C.O.D. has a running time of 90 minutes.

FRIENDS WITH KIDS

FRIENDS WITH KIDS, like FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, is a movie that wants to seem transgressive and "real" but can't resist it's Hollywood rom-com ending.  The result in both cases is a rather banal 2 hour wait for the hero and heroine, so obviously in love with each other, to realise it at the same time, allowing a conventional loved up ending.

The opening is promising.  Jason (Adam Scott) and Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt) are two singletons in a group of friends that have had kids, and are blissfully smug about how their friends are just tired, frustrating kid-centric banalities.  Of course, this movie, written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt, doesn't have the balls to really examine what would happen if you rejected that lifestyle, but instead decided to make the two singletons unite to have a baby, while trying to date independently.  Of course, as soon as the baby is born they both find what they might have previously thought was their Ideal 0 he gets the young hot chick (Megan Fox) and she gets the sensitive nice guy (Ed Burns). But because the movie can't end after an hour, Julie has to realise she's in love with Jason a few years before he reciprocates her feelings.  As if that were ever in doubt.

The movie is not without its delights.  There are a few scabrous and raucous scenes - typically involving John Hamm and Kristen Wiig as a deeply unhappy couple.  But the movie just isn't as transgressive as it thinks it is, and it's about as authentic as Chris O'Dowd's American accent.  The second hour really is a struggle too wade through.  In short, just another will-they-won't-they-oh-please-get-on-with-it rom-com.  I'm sad to say that Jennifer Westfeldt has form with this.  She pulled the same tease in KISSING JESSICA STEIN, a rom-com in which a girl thinks she's gay - which is a really interesting set up - but the movie then devolves into banality.  Not a director who's work I'll be seeking out in future. 

FRIENDS WITH KIDS played Toronto 2011 and was released earlier this year in the USA, Greece, Israel, Sweden, Russia, Mexico, Portugal, Brazil, Australia, Peru and Slovenia. It opens this weekend in the UK, Ireland, Finland and Serbia. It opens on July 5th in the Netherlands, July 12th in Argentina nad Bulgaria, August 1st in France, August 22nd in Belgium and Chile, on September 5th in Hong Kong and on November 9th in Turkey.

The film is rated R and has a running time of 107 minutes.