kevin c Reviews

Nomadland (2020)

Best Picture??

[9/10 · 2 May 2021]

This is so unlike the traditional Best Pictures. It's quiet, when others are boastful. It prefers simple, over peril. It's a beautiful film that doesn't toy with the pain of its subjects. They have no choice, but do not want to be pitied.

McDormand is fantastic, it looks fantastic; it's simply a fantastic movie.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

1984 or 2021?

[7/10 · 2 May 2021]

Movie night with Gertie.

This had mixed reviews but i mostly loved it. I felt it had a real feel of the 1970s Superman.

The plot is convoluted, and it's 30-mins too long. However, I warmed to the positivity and it's timing felt spot-on. Diana might be indestructible in some ways, but she's surprisingly brittle in others. Jenkins's camera is captivated by her resilience, as it lingers on adoring shots of WW in action. Every beat of WW 1984 feels like it's arrived to pulverise this miserable Covid year into dust.

Eternal Beauty (2019)

"normal is boring"

[5/10 · 25 April 2021]

A Sally Hawkins performance is always so enthralling. Her latest role, in Craig Roberts's dark comedy, sees her play Jane a woman living with paranoid schizophrenia. There's a stark sense of isolation here - scenes take place in rooms that are half-empty, but filled with long, hungry shadows.

It has light, funny moments. When Jane falls for Mike (David Thewlis), someone also chewed up and spat out by the mental health system, they become frolicking lovers in a French New Wave classic. However, the movie is never unfaithful to the psychological reality of its central character.

Eternal Beauty shows, we might not be able to conquer our demons, but we can try to live with them. This is a nuanced, evolved take on mental illness than most films are capable of.

Sound of Metal (2019)

(lovely) Distortion

[8/10 · 25 April 2021]

This is a film of both beauty and purpose. Despite Oscar nominations this is not a disability story of quaint tragedy and saintly patience.

The opening is magnificent as the aural world collapses into distorted thuds. And Ahmed's performance is a force to be reckoned with. This is an actor who's deeply connected to his surroundings - those large, inquisitive eyes always darting around in order to take in every detail.

Taken in by the deaf community, Ruben is finally given the opportunity to slow down and reexamine his life. Thus Sound of Metal becomes a film about what change means for a person.

Palm Springs (2020)

Wedding day(s)

[6/10 · 18 April 2021]

This obviously resonates because we've all been living lockdown, repetitive lives. Here the Groundhog Day-style infinite time loop is rearranged and reinvented to surprising success. The romantic comedy has one crucial change - here we get two protagonists stuck reliving the same day.

Samberg having given up any hope of escaping, has fully embraced "living in the moment". Both past and future have lost all meaning. Milioti also embraces the philosophy, which gives the film its absurd sense of humour.

It's Milioti who shines in this, she has a wonderful way of creating the illusion of confidence, but that she could shatter at any moment.

Crimson Peak (2015)

Rebecca mess

[4/10 · 10 April 2021]

I love Del Toro but this is massively ramped up to 11 ands in a highly camp mess. The early scenes work, dealing with class and snobbery with an air of Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence. There's swirling camerawork, extravagant production design; piano-playing and waltzing. And moments of excessive, extreme violence.

In the second half, the action switches to the decaying English mansion house, and goes off the rails. It chucks everything into the mix, steals massively from Rebecca; the plot is clearly predictable and it collapses into absurdity.

Del Toro is obviously enjoying himself, but i'm not sure the audience is. At least Chastain enjoys herself in a wonderfully flamboyant performance, part Mrs Danvers and part bride of Frankenstein.

Colette (I) (2018)

Keira (but not a lot else)

[5/10 · 4 April 2021]

Movie night with Iris.

The central Keira Knightley performance is excellent, but the film can't overcome the challenge faced by every literary biopic, how to dramatise a life spent sitting at a desk writing.

Visually it looks like an impressionist painting. The sun always shining through the leaves. Rolling fields, lush gardens, sleepy railways stations to picturesque stately country houses. Men in top hats and women with parasols could have stepped out of a Monet canvas.

Plot-wise, the film is similar to recently watched literary drama The Wife. I found the storytelling disjointed, and the film goes off the rails midway when it becomes a bedroom farce.

Colette's strength and ability to cope means that the film is often short on tension. Whatever the situation, she makes the best of it. If a lover cheats on her or a publisher lets her down, she takes it in her stride. As a portrait of an artist, the film is intriguing but not memorable.

Mogul Mowgli (2020)

Dope

[6/10 · 3 April 2021]

Movie night with Iris.

This has the feel of 1980s Film on 4 and a bit of Donnie Darko. Riz Ahmed leads with a performance that is his most personal and affecting yet. This tackles questions of family, identity, religion, integrity and illness in a way that never feels forced. It's an engaging, heartfelt rumination that feels very personal but emotionally hooks you from the first bars.

It does look cheap, and that can be jarring at times. However, it mostly hits the right emotional beats. Mogul Mowgli is a gripping, emotive and thought-provoking examination of British-Pakistani culture.

A Fantastic Woman (2017)

Fantastically subtle

[7/10 · 28 March 2021]

The transgender heroine is a wonderfully complex, defiant and passionate character. One who keeps her poise and dignity in the most trying of circumstances.

She endures every kind of humiliation imaginable. And regardless of the story's sexual politics, Marina is the type of heroine that any audience will root for. Lelio conveys her courage and endurance to have her right to mourn for the man she loved. And to express her own independence.

The Mule (2018)

Adieu Clint....

[6/10 · 27 March 2021]

If this Clint's acting bow, he's on scene-stealing form in an unlikely true story. Eastwood's performance is enjoyable in a mischievous, cantankerous way. He shuffles around, pretending (falsely) to be dim-witted and grumpy.

The sexual politics of the film are questionable indeed. Especially a strange sleazy interlude when he visits the hedonistic cartel boss. Ultimately it's pandemic-escapist fun, enjoyable and full of human insight.

Misbehaviour (2020)

Girl power (origin story)

[7/10 · 21 March 2021]

Movie night with Gertie.

This is an amazing tale as feminism and apartheid crash into one another, and the film mostly gets the balance right. It is perhaps a bit too fluffy to do it justice, but it felt timely to see a redhead bundled to the floor by the police so soon after the Clapham Common vigil.

The Gift (VI) (2015)

Monkey business

[6/10 · 21 March 2021]

Badged as a thriller, this is more of a study of bullying and its consequences.

It only belatedly resorts to shock tactics and big melodramatic flourishes. It is a slow-burning, nuanced affair in which your perspective on the protagonists gradually shifts. Their attitude toward one another also shifts, as people discover how little they really know about each other.

The Boys in the Band (2020)

Stagey

[5/10 · 20 March 2021]

Setting-wise this is spot-on. You are bang in the middle of 1968 New York. It is perhaps a little too shiny, and certainly very stagey.

There's some fantastic one-liners, and it's ok. A nice companion piece to C4's It's A Sin.

Host (II) (2020)

it bump, bump, screamed

[8/10 · 14 March 2021]

A horror movie for the Zoom gloom pandemic times.

This is a haunted carnival ride, but the set pieces are tensely put together.

I Care a Lot (2020)

I didn't Care A Lot

[5/10 · 14 March 2021]

Cards on the table i'm not a big fan of black comedies. This film centres around Rosamund Pike, but i just don't feel she pulled it off.

The satire is an interesting one, but i found the film muddled as Pike swung between aggressor and victim. I wanted more of a comeuppance.

The Wife (I) (2017)

power behind the thone

[6/10 · 7 March 2021]

It's hard to believe, but Glenn Close has never won an Oscar. Nominated seven times (including for this), but always missing out. How apt when you've seen this....

This is a female role with depth, and Close capitalises on it brilliantly. Whilst Runge's film feels theatrical at times, the acting from Close and her co-stars more than compensates.

Inspired by the likes of Philip Roth and Saul Bellow, Castleman is a jovial bully, a literary thug who can't bear the idea that anyone else might step into his spotlight, even for one second. Demeaning his son at every opportunity, and damning his wife with faint praise.

You sense where it's all going, but this is hugely entertaining, and Jonathan Pryce embraces his character's essential hollowness with glee. And we don't get to see Christian Slater much in films these days, which is a pity, and he brings real nuance and humanity to his portrayal of a snake(ish) muckraker.

The Nightingale (I) (2018)

Tough watch (but worth it)

[7/10 · 7 March 2021]

This Is a film that bruises the soul. It allows man's darkest impulses to play out in full. The violence will be too much for some. It is unspeakable brutality, but i urge you to stick with this. This is no rape, revenge drama more an unlikely friendship being buillt in the darkest of times.

Many films have used the Academey ratio to good effect in recent years, and this is another. Kent uses the tighter, square aspect ratio, often resting on Franciosi's face in close-up. The effect feels all the more oppressive, as if the sides of the screen itself are threatening to close in on her and swallow her up.

It's an ugly film, in the very best sense of the word. Payback is far from straightforward. But it's a film that stick with you.

Finding Jack Charlton (2020)

Damn ageing

[7/10 · 28 February 2021]

Lovely documentary charting the World Cup winner and Ireland's adopted hero. The Italia '90 story is captivating and the dementia final curtain devestating.

Dirty God (2019)

Skin deep

[8/10 · 28 February 2021]

When a beautiful young woman has acid thrown in her face, what does it do to her sense of self? This is the key question in this intoxicating 21st century London drama.

The film is reminiscent of Andrea Arnold's work. All the scars (literally) are laid bare. This is no redemptive story but Jade does grow. And the journey is moving and cathartic.

News of the World (2020)

Woody for real

[7/10 · 28 February 2021]

Given he is the modern day Jimmy Stewart, it's surprising that this is Tom Hanks' first western.

The emotional core story works extrememly well, and the set-pieces are tense and exciting. The deeper examination of the US works less well.

Sulphur and White (2020)

childhood pain

[6/10 · 20 February 2021]

Sulphur and White tells the true story of high-flying city trader David Tait. This is the emotional cost and redemption of a broken man. The depiction of life in the turbulent City had a a ring of truth to it, and the horrifying abuse scenes are managed with sensitivity.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021)

Groundhog (lockdown) Day

[5/10 · 17 February 2021]

Movie afternoon with Gertie.

A re-run of 'Groundhog Day' for pandemically bored tweenagers. The film starts with a bravura opening sequence. Something falls, he's there to catch it; someone falls in the swimming pool, he's there to catch them. What kind of superhero is this kid? It's a brightly shot, terrifically edited introduction, although Allen's smug confidence begins to grate quickly.

The film eventually switches things up by bringing on Margaret, who is uninterested in Mark, but in the same temporal freeze. Newton brings an engaging honesty to the super-smart Margaret, and at times Grossman's dialogue is sharp. This is glossy and undemanding, and perfect froa wet half-term afternoon.

Greenland (2020)

Popcorn film (hoorah)

[7/10 · 14 February 2021]

Movie afternoon with Gertie.

How lovely to have some multiplex, popcorn fare in lockdown. This is a disaster film laced with a palpable sense of fear. It's mostly ridiculous but still gripping stuff.

What you cannot escape are the Covid-parallels. It seems a fitting film for the era. Why be so flippant about global disaster when those ideas now feel so close to home?

King Rocker (2020)

Not much of the Rocker

[6/10 · 14 February 2021]

This is, ostensibly, a documentary about a musician i'd never heard of. But i was captivated throughout. I'm a big fan of Lee, and his warmth and love for Lloyd and his music carries this. To him The Nightingales are a band worth celebrating unashamedly, rather than treating as a curio.

You never know where it's going, and strangely there's not a lot of music. And i liked how Frank Skinner, John Taylor, Nigel Slater and Robin Askwith pop up throughout to entertain.

One quibble was the appalling Sky presentation. In the second half adverts every five mins proved disruptive. The is an enjoyable documentary celebrating the outsiders, the also-rans and the nearly-weres; and the enduring appeal of cult bands and scenes that exist away from the scenes of mainstream success

Saint Frances (2019)

Girl (not) talking

[8/10 · 13 February 2021]

Quiet, little movie that's quietly subversive. This is a comedy, written by and starring Kelly O'Sullivan, providing an unvarnished perspective on feminity, having a child and/ or choosing not to have a baby.

The three female protagonists each, is a prisoner to their own secrets. All three women are muted by shame. The only real conflict here is their inability to talk to each other. And O'Sullivan's script much like her performance, is sweet without ever going sickly. Great stuff.