BETTER MAN*****

Recency bias, but BETTER MAN may be one of the best films I saw in 2024. I cannot describe just how imaginative, kinetic, audacious and moving this film is.  Admittedly, Robbie Williams was a big part of the pop-cultural backdrop of my teenage years and early 20s. But I would like to think that even if you had never heard of one of Britain's biggest selling music stars, you would still get a lot from this deeply raw, deeply humane, film.

Williams has been open about his life story, not least in a multi-part Netflix doc.  He grew up in poverty in a former industrial town in England, with a father (Inside No. 9's Steve Pemberton - superb) who dreamt of stardom and abandoned Robbie and his mum when he was little.  At 15, he was plucked from obscurity to be part of one of the biggest Boy Band's of all time, but on the strict instructions that he was just the clown and the backing dancer, rather than having any musical or creative credibility.  By 19 he had left Take That and gone solo, with the self-imposed demons of trying to impress his absentee dad and trying to outcompete his old band and their newer rivals, Oasis. If Oasis sold out Knebworth, then Williams too had to sell out Knebworth.

The film is absolutely blunt about Williams' demons.  He is an alcoholic and drug addict and faces demons of self-doubt and self-hatred.  At many points we see Williams cutting cocaine with a razor and we later see suicidal ideation.  The genius of Williams and writer-director Michael Gracey (THE GREATEST SHOWMAN) is to depict Williams as a CGI-chimp, overlaid on real vocal and physical performance from Jonno Davies.  Through that avatar we see Williams as he sees himself - an outcast, a court jester, an animal.  But we also see an incredible range of emotion - from fear to joy to hurt and anxiety.  The eyes are so expressive and the child-hood version of the chimp is particularly winning.  And when Robbie is facing his demons, they are avatars of himself as a chimp - in various guises and from different parts of his life.  When he finally faces them down, and learns to forgive his dad in order to love himself, it's a moment of deep catharsis.

That Williams survives is down to his own hard work in rehab and his own honesty - but also the love of three women - his mum, his adoring grandma (Alison Steadman - superb as always) and for a period his fiancé his Nicole Appleton.  This part of the story is hard to watch.  Williams' addiction is in full-throttle and she is clearly in love with him.  We also get the revelation that she was forced into an abortion by her manager as she was on the cusp of her own chart success.

And what of the construction of the film?  Well, hear me out: this may well be the best movie musical of 2024, and yes that includes WICKED. The set-piece numbers are sensational.  There's a bravura montage set to Williams' hit Rock DJ, filmed on Piccadilly and Regent Street, that takes us through Take That's rise to success. For those of who remember those outfits and haircuts and dance moves, it's a kinetic, technically brilliant piece of musical theatre. Later in the film there's an equally brilliantly staged montage that shows Williams going from a meet-cute with Appleton to getting engaged and mourning the abortion.  The actress Raechelle Banno must be quite some dancer, as that dance scene set on a boat is phenomenal.  The final musical number I would like to call out is to Williams' hit Angels. Here we have him on the verge of Knebworth but mourning the death of his grandma. This is when I started crying.

I cannot speak more highly of Williams' honesty and creativity and his partnership with Gracey. BETTER MAN is one of the most unique, compelling and affecting films I have seen all year. It's also one of the most honest and moving depiction of addiction and mental health crisis that I have seen on film EVER.  I heartily recommend it to you.

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.

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL****

I finished the film year strong with a double-bill of films about miserable life experiences tempered by kindly grandma figures who like the TV comedy show The Two Ronnies. In the first, by Adam Elliot (MARY & MAX) we are in a stop-motion depiction of childhood in 1970s Melbourne, Australia.  Grace (Succession's Sarah Snook) is a sweet but nerdy girl obsessed with snails, and beloved by her brother Gilbert. The first in a series of awful events results in her being split from that brother and fostered by a couple of swingers. Meanwhile, Gilbert is fostered by a couple of religious fundamentalists who want to suppress his incipient homosexuality.  As an adult, Grace is alone but for her kindly old grandma-substitute friend Pinky (Jacki Weaver). Even her fiancé isn't all he's cracked up to be  As with BETTER MAN the film does end with Grace creating a safe and happy space for herself, and letting go of some of her childhood trauma. But the overall feel of the film is - as with Elliot's prior works - miserabalist. If anything shitty can go wrong for Grace it will. As ever, the animation is beautifully rendered. There's something so unique and expressive in Elliot's style that you want to pause frames to pick up on the detail. But I found this inverse WALLACE & GROMIT just a bit too unrelenting in its sadness.

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.

MY OLD ASS***

Writer-direct Megan Park returns with he R-rated dramedy MY OLD ASS in which 18-year old Elliott (Maisy Stella - Nashville) takes some shrooms with her friends and suddenly finds herself talking to her 39-year old self (Aubrey Plaza - White Lotus). The films starts off being utterly hilarious with lots of shocked teenage horror that a 39 year old isn't married and is still in school. And why Stella may not look much like a young Plaza, she gets her give no fucks wry humour and confidence. 

At first, older Elliott's advice seems really good and helpful but there's one glitch.  Old Elliott tells Young Elliott to avoid a guy called Chad, even though they seem to have an instant connection that belies E's assumption that she is gay. The movie then takes a somewhat jarring tonal turn into a far more serious and affecting drama. Which is all good. I just didn't see it coming. And it felt a bit rushed and underdeveloped - and well - trite - by the end.  That said, Maisy Stella has a real talent for comedy and I hope this film leads to her getting more parts.

MY OLD ASS is rated R, has a running time of 89 minutes, and was released in September.

THE OUTRUN*****

THE OUTRUN is a brilliantly constructed and occasionally visually and aurally beautiful film about a young woman getting sober.  It doesn't cover up any of the pain and violence and hurt of her journey, including relapse, but culminates in a scene of such visceral euphoria that it leaves you hopeful.

The film was produced by and stars Saoirse Ronan (BLITZ) as Rona.  The film intercuts three eras in Rona's life. In her old life in London she parties hard to EDM, gets drunk and lashes out at her long-suffering boyfriend (Paapa Essiedu) to the point where she hits bottom and ends up in a strict residential programme.  In her new sober life back home in Orkney - and a series of ever smaller islands off its coast - we see her serendipitously find a new passion for life.  The third strand sees Nora remembering her childhood, with her father (Stephen Dillane) suffering bouts of severe depression.

The film is based on a memoir by Amy Lippintrot, adapted for the screen by director Nora Fingscheidt.  I love that it balances gritty reality with hope but never feels mawkish.  Even a final flourish in the end feels earned and light.  Ronan is - as we expect - stunning and raw and vulnerable in the central role.  But note also Dillane's subtly heartbreaking performance as her dad.  

As one might expect from a film based in some of the most harsh but beautiful land and seascapes, the film looks fantastic. But most importantly, it sounds fantastic. From needle drops, to the score by John Guertler and Jan Miserre, to the sound design by Jonathan Schorr and Oscar Steibitz.  Just as with SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE, THE OUTRUN is doing something special with sound that takes us into the mind of its protagonist and reflects the pressures bearing down as well as joyous release. This culminates in a wonderful scene on a beach where a now sober Rona is conducting the waves in a moment of euphoria, contrasted and intercut with her old life dancing to EDM.  This film really is something special.

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).

It stars Cillian Murphy (OPPENHEIMER) as Bill Furlong, the owner of a small coal business who is happily married and lives in a home filled with laughter and the tumbling chaos of a gaggle of daughters.  Nonetheless, as many who have scraped their way up from poverty, he can never quite shake off that feeling of insecurity and is haunted by memories of his childhood as an illegitimate child taken in by a kindly rich woman (Michelle Fairley - Game of Thrones).

The moral crisis of the film is triggered by Bill making a delivery to a convent himself, and seeing the exploitation of the girls there, and receiving a plea for help from one distraught teenager in particular. As viewers, we are sadly all too familiar with the decades-long abuses of the Magdalene Laundries, in which the Catholic Church exploited young pregnant women. The question is: what Bill will do?

As is made clear to him by the presiding Sister (Emily Watson - chilling), going against the Church means a kind of social ostracisation - and Bill has many girls to educate in the school that they run.  And yet, and yet, he all too well knows that his own mother might well have ended up in such an institution, had she not been taken care of by her kindly employer. 

The resulting film is beautifully acted and captures the claustrophobia and oppression of a small town suffocated by the Church.  The sound design is particularly notable for depicting the twin horrors breaking in on Bill's mind - of his childhood and what is happening in the convent. Just as with the novel, this is a movie that absolutely envelopes you in a certain time and place, and stirs up emotions and provokes moral questions. It is a thing of beauty and brilliance.

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****

I am not exactly sure why JUROR #2 slipped from view and made poor returns but it is a good old-fashioned, handsomely made, twisty courtroom drama. 

Nicholas Hoult (NOSFERATU) stars as Justin - a recovering alcoholic with a heavily pregnant wife.  Early into a criminal trial for murder Justin realises that the man on the stand is innocent of brutally bludgeoning his partner because it was actually Justin who was returning from a bar, having nearly relapsed, and thought he had hit a deer. He did get out of the car to investigate, but not finding anything, drove off.

So what should he do? Should he confess, knowing his history of DUIs will make his testimony unreliable? Should he agitate in the jury room for a mistrial?  And what of the prosecutor (Toni Colette), who needs a conviction for her re-election campaign?

The film works as a backward-induced whodunnit. Is the jury going to figure out what really happened?  It also works as case study of moral code, much as SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE will. How far has Justin truly reformed? 

As I said, there's nothing particularly new or inventive here, but the script was clever and tight, the performances solid, and I was thoroughly engaged throughout. It's kind of amazing that nonagenarian Clint Eastwood can still churn these things out.  It feels like a film that we used to make in the 80s - intelligent smart thrillers for adults. Maybe that's why it couldn't find its place at the Box Office.

JUROR #2 is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 114 minutes. It was released last month.