matt-france Reviews

Wicked Little Letters (2023)

Great British Comedy

[9/10 · 25 February 2024]

Beautifully written script. Laugh out loud moments, wrapped in feeling and emotion. This film speaks to buttoned up and repressed emotions and feelings within the British psyche of 1920's Britain, and if reports of walk-outs from disgruntled viewers are anything to go by, the same emotional constipation is alive and kicking over 100 years later.

It reveals the dangers of psychological projection in an endearing, gentle way. It reminded me of learning to swear with my mates as a kid and the laughs we used have as we invented strings of expletives. It was how we began to express ourselves and outgrow childhood, and how we learnt to reign ourselves in again.

There's much talk of the film as allegory to the current wave of online trolling, but I find it closer to a direct confrontation to those people who still believe in emotional repression.

The cast is a superb. Olivia Colman displays the feelings of Edith gradually, like a pot of water slowing boiling. Jessie Buckley is fiery, loving, sassy and outrageous. Timothy Spall depicts the effects of pent up anger with chilling effect, and Anjana Vasan is adorably polite and sassy as a Woman Police Officer.

If you are offended by swearing and bad language, then you MUST watch this film, for your, and everyone else's own good!

Loved it.

Shantaram (2022)

I'm loving it

[10/10 · 8 September 2023]

I listened to the audiobook over what seemed like an eternity that I didn't want to end. The book was rich and vivid, leaving me with many fond memories and nostalgia for my time travelling in India in the early 90s.

I watched this show with some trepidation. Would they ruin it? How could it be translated to the screen?

The answer is that I loved it. The lighting and filming is great. The characters have their own personality and the director has developed more of an ethical edge to the story. The characters are more troubled and less heroic than the novel and swathes of the book have been left out.

The entirely first person narrative of the novel is replaced by dialogue we never saw in the book, which brings new dimensions to enjoy.

I binge watched this. It was the prime reason I signed up for Apple TV. And now they have dropped it and I'm gutted.

Where is Apple's dedication to art for its own sake? Are they pandering to critics of cultural appropriation? The series reflects a period in India that I recognise as partially true. My own stories of almost being seduced by a gang of jewellery smugglers in India have been exaggerated each time that I tell them. The same can be said for this colourful story based on the truth. And it is all the better for it.

Apple- if you're reading, I'm now unsubscribing until you commission series 2, 3 and 4!

Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)

Unwatchable garbage

[1/10 · 26 August 2023]

Some thing things should be left in the past. Bill and Ted were funny back in the day after a few spliffs but this was worse than the reboot of Dumb and Dumber.

Keanu must have really needed the money to have accepted this gig. You can tell his utter lack of enthusiasm for the lifeless and banal script as he drags himself through the scenes. The zest of youth has gone and both characters.

As with dumb and dumber, there was so much opportunity to play on the aging stoner's characters in some new way. But instead it just comes across as two middle aged men aping the days of their youth.

Very disappointed.

Halloween (I) (2018)

Trick- not Treat

[4/10 · 5 November 2018]

I found it boring personally. The killing starts pretty quickly and apart from some gore that I keep having flashbacks to, I'm not sure it scared me at all. I remember being terrified at the original back in my early teens, but the same tricks didn't work on me here. Worth seeing for Jamie Lee Curtis, who is solid as she plays a messed up grandma version of her debut character. It may be it was lost on me because I rewatched the first film the night before and found the thrills way too predictable as a result. My wife loved it though and squealed loudly throughout- so worth the admisssion for that I guess.

Haunted (2017)

Chilling and beautiful

[7/10 · 5 November 2018]

Loved the pace and simplicity of this film. The lead actor is a hauntingly beautiful woman that seems to slip effortlessly between enchanting prettiness to psychologically disturbed. If you like your horror films filled with blood and gore this is not for you. If you like thoughtful, slow build, psychological skin tingling then look no further than this icy treat.