Women Talking: Movie Review

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Ben Whishaw, Frances McDormand

Director: Sarah Polley

Harrowing, hard-viewing and yet somehow cathartically uplifting, Sarah Polley's Women Talking feels like a tour de force playlet writ large for the big screen.

However, there's no denying this 100 minute tale of a group of women discussing their future after being drugged, raped and impregnated by the men of their religious community is anything but a stern warning and rejoinder to toxic male behaviour.

Yet it's also not misanthropic too, thanks to a sensitive turn by Ben Whishaw, as the community teacher August brought in to take notes for the women as they decide whether to stay and fight, leave or do nothing after a bridge too far.

In amongst this group are a range of women who've been gaslit, and who are now in fear of their lives - but each has a different reason for the communal rage they share. From Claire Foy's Salome who worries she'll lose her soul if she stays longer as she'll kill someone, to Jessie Buckley's indignant and angry Mariche whose children are in the sights to Frances McDormand's Scarface who refuses to go or be part of the discussion, every tale is handled with sensitivity and a feeling of rounded characters.

Flashbacks of bruised thighs or bleeding births show the horror of the men, who remain faceless throughout in this; Polley makes a conscious choice to only show the face of August and the boys of the commune, at once granting them a chance for redemption while robbing the guilty of a presence.

The film's more interested in the debate and the philosophy rather than the reconstruction of what's happened - but it loses none of the power from its telling from doing so. 

Polley has taken Miriam Toews's book, which was inspired by the sustained abuse of hundreds at the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia between 2005 and 2009, and fashioned it into a kind of one set stage play that still has something uplifting to proffer despite its brutal premise.

With a greyed out aesthetic and a sheen of sparsity, this lean production relies on the power of its cast to provide a truly haunting and compelling film that provokes plenty of discussion after the lights have gone out.

While it could have gone hard on the angry side and condemnation, it simply presents the facts and shows the effects to ensure the 12 Angry Men elements feel more organic rather than overly produced - it's an important difference and the film retains its power greatly from doing so.

There's plenty to debate here. From forgiveness to nature and nurture, the fruits and ramifications for any parent or person in a position of power are many, but not once does Polley turn to editorialising, preferring to leave a more aloof directorial touch to do the necessary work.

Polley trusts in her actors to deliver, and they do - without a doubt, Women Talking may be one of the hardest films of 2023, but thanks to a sensitive delivery, its powerful message will live long after the lights have gone up.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: Movie Review

Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Kathryn Newton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas, Jonathan Majors
Director: Peyton Reed

Returning once again and with the giant-sized job of kicking off Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Paul Rudd's Scott Lang finds himself - and his erstwhile family sucked into the Quantum realm when his daughter Cassie (Newton) messes up an experiment.

As they try to escape, Lang and his crew find a new threat rising from deep below and one that Hope's mother (Pfeiffer) had thought long buried and forgotten - Kang The Conqueror (Lovecraft Country's Jonathan Majors).

Largely confined to more larky escapades, Ant-Man goes bigger in this latest Peyton Reed outing - but ironically, despite his size feels sidelined throughout.

Serving more as an ensemble riff on a Star Wars cantina cum Disney's Strange World outing in the quantum realm, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania does a great job of seeding Jonathan Majors antagonist Kang as a soft spoken menace - but somehow manages little else.

Forced into groups, Ant-Man and his daughter try to bond despite abandonment issues, while Wasp Hope (Lilly) tries to get answers from her mom - both groups feel Piecemeal at times  with only Rudd's huge empathy and angrier side nicely standing out as proceedings continue.

Newton has fun as Cassie even if the "Even if this isn't your fight you still should" mantra is overtly hammered home repeatedly throughout. While one sequence feels like Majors' first appearance in Lovecraft Country, the action in the weird CGI heavy quantum realm never really rises above the rote full scale destruction we've witnessed countless times before, and grown weary of. And there are narrative issues as an uprising is seeded early on with weird and wonderful creatures, but who are left to become deus ex machina in the film's final act.

Perhaps Marvel could have gone weirder in its animal antics and certainly flexed its multiversal muscles a little more in this its 31st outing. Though it is commendable to see the usually smug Lang suffering more of an existential crisis this time around - and still unsure of his place in the world of the Avengers.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania somehow feels slight in its introduction of its next phase with slow setup shoehorned in after Rudd's initial self-deprecating imposter syndrome humour. 

It may aim for epic but with Majors and Rudd really only rising to the occasion and with the film's females vociferously sidelined after strong early ensemble antics, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania feels like a more muted Marvel than a monster-sized kickoff for phase 5.

Dead Space: PS5 Review

Developed by Visceral Games, Motive Studio
Published by EA
Platform: PS5

Sometimes a classic is a classic for simple reasons.

Such as it is with the 2023 remake of Dead Space, a remake that doesn't veer too far from its original path, but feels fresh and revitalised for the new version.

For those unfamiliar with the 2008 version, Dead Space follows protagonist Isaac as he heads to doomed spaceship the USG Ishimura to try and find his girlfriend. But when his own craft crashes into the ship ahead of boarding, Isaac and his colleagues find themselves in a dire strait as disfigured vicious creatures attack them.

Suddenly, for Isaac and his crew, it's a case of survival in among the rafters of the Ishimura.

What Dead Space's remake has done is take an original and given it a polish to enhance the experience; but what's transpired is a game that builds on its basics and makes use of the next gen capabilities to deliver a truly terrifying experience.

The Ishimura's ramshackle corridors creak with uncertainty and with hidden dangers, and thanks to the use of sound, the atmospherics of this terrifying title come hauntingly to life and prove to be viscerally frightening.

From the dank darkness of the corridors to the genuinely upsetting body horror of the necromorphs which stalk your every move, Dead Space builds on the tensions you'd expect to make for an experience that's hard to shake.

While there are one or two deviations from the original game, these add to the overall feel of the game and Isaac's quest to find his better half. Minor deviations in light around the ship build atmosphere and choices where you have to decide whether to leave the lights on make for tension-filled moments.

Dead Space respects its roots but also delivers more than enough to justify its presence on the next generation platforms. It's a thrilling sci-fi ride that's blessed with sheer terror and also fits perfectly into the genre it belongs in - but this remake also elevates the original and leaves the recently released The Callisto Protocol lost in space over what a truly terrifying horror experience set within a spaceship should be.

PowerWash Simulator: PS5 Review

Developed by Futurlab
Published by Square Enix
Platform: PS5

It's hard to explain exactly why PowerWash Simulator can prove to be such a relaxing tonic.

At its core, all it really is is a simple game that you can do in real life - pick up a water blaster and hose things down with precision, clearing the grime and cleaning the scene. It would be trite to say it's a game that relies on difficulty and one which builds to a crescendo on each level, because at the end of the day, all you're doing is simply washing down various items.

Starting off with a van and a pressure gun, you get to build your business up after taking on varying degrees of requests and carrying out successful washes. Each wash sees you contacted by further would-be customers who've heard of your reputation and are keen to ensure your keep it clean mantra can extend to them.

In truth, some of this game is about endurance and patience - there's a degree of monotony that creeps in every time even though you can reinvest your earnings in newer and fancier equipment before repeating the same methodology.

Extended nozzles, cleaning solutions, different guns - there's enough to play around with to achieve the perfect loadout, but you'll quickly settle on what works for you and leave it. The console launch edition comes with the Tomb Raider castle to clean up and there are plenty of levels to go through.

From time to time there's an issue getting 100% of an area clean, and occasionally a few areas of levels said they're clean even though they were blatantly dirty, but the niggles with this game are few and far in between.

PowerWash Simulator is good clean fun, but probably best done when you're in a relaxed state of mind rather than in need of a desperate gaming fix.

Mister Organ: DVD Review

Director: David Farrier

Tickled director David Farrier's latest is an intriguing affair, an exploration of what happens when a filmmaker becomes too attached to its subject and what happens when the strands of reality become too far entangled to unwind.

As ever with Farrier's intrigue at falling down a rabbit hole, it's the story of how he spent 5 years investigating what would appear to have been a simple case of a bully overzealously clamping people outside an Auckland shop which developed into a toxic relationship that may have you in mind of Louis Theroux's investigative friendship with Jimmy Savile.

As Farrier investigates Michael Organ the man behind the clamping farrago, a trail of victims whose lives have been irrevocably ruined by this narcissist begin to emerge - and much like a moth to a flame, Farrier edges closer into Organ's orbit with no real indication he's able to pull out.

The initially frivolous edges of Mister Organ soon give way to a darker tinged piece that really start to show Farrier coming unhinged, rather than his documentary subject. It's a fascinating insight into how obsession can unravel, and it's genuinely upsetting to see this documentary maker almost destroyed by half a decade's worth of time consumed.

Whilst the doco makes strenuous mention of the time involved, there's little indication of how that's played out on screen, which makes it akin to feeling like Farrier's time with Organ has happened over a week period. While that doesn't detract from his vulnerability, some sense of a time frame would have helped Mister Organ achieve an even more sinister effect.

Wondrously helmed by DP Dominic Fryer, what is really a series of meetings between two people sparkles on screen. The mundanities of small town New Zealand look astonishingly realised, and the seedy underbelly of the world comes to the fore.

There are some frustrations - chiefly, there's never really a sense of understanding why Farrier continues to pursue his subject for years other than to get some answers and because he "really winds up" Farrier himself. 

Hints of trouble come from interview subjects who don't really want to be on camera - and an inference one person in Organ's orbit committed suicide because of him is never really addressed directly by its accused.

Yet conversely, it's in these moments the film does come alive though - a sense of a Damocles sword above Farrier's head that he's made for himself, and a tangible feeling that he's never really in control of proceedings - or depressingly, the narrative itself - as he hopes to crack the seemingly dangerous and toxic enigma of Organ. 

Best seen unresearched and a depressing portrait of narcissism in its many forms - both in and behind the camera - Mister Organ may leave you with more questions than answers ultimately, but it's a troubling journey that provides no real resolution and leaves you dangling, desperate - and yet terrified - for more.

Halloween Ends: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Rohan Campbell, Andi Matichak, Nick Castle
Director: David Gordon Green

If Halloween Kills made Michael Myers into a supernatural unkillable force, Halloween Ends sidelines him to the sewers for most of the film, the trilogy's conclusion and the capper to some 40 plus years of stabby scares.

The age old arguments of Nature and nurture collide with a town's trauma and the desire to villify the evil that lies within in David Gordon Green's more psychologically scarred end to the franchise.

In the finale, it's been 4 years since the events of Halloween Kills, and Michael Myers has vanished from Haddonfield. But the town is still damaged by the trauma, and has a new boogeyman to pillory in the form of accidental child-killer Corey Cunningham (Campbell).

A case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, this former babysitter finds himself on a collision course with a maudlin Laurie Strode (Curtis, in fine form) and her granddaughter Allyson (Matichak) after he forms an attraction to Allyson.

Introduced by Laurie, she soon begins to fear the darkness within him is growing in the build-up to another Halloween and after continued persecution from within the community and an over-protective mother....

Halloween Ends is not the finale you'd expect to the franchise.

If you're after a slasher-fest that piles up the body count and builds to a bloody end of almost Reichenbach levels, this is not the film for you. In truth, the awful Halloween Kills, with its chants of "Evil dies tonight" throughout, gave the body count its final outing and really demonstrated how the franchise had lost its edge.

What Green does here is more a play on the reality of killers, the shadow their pall casts on communities, on how the outcasts are just teetering on the edge of insanity and how an infection inveigles its way in and rots all from the inside.

Myers doesn't even appear until a good 40 minutes of the film have passed, leaving Campbell, Matichak and Curtis to shoulder a great deal of the set up of the movie. When he does finally kill, there's a hint that this withered and decrepit shape that's lost its purpose seems to get some kind of empowerment from the hacking and slicing, an idea that Green teases but disappointingly never really fully forms.

While the body count is substantially lower this time, it's not to say the kills don't lack brutality throughout when they occur. And yes there's a showdown between Strode and the Shape that everyone could see coming, and in truth, which suffers from an inevitability of a conclusion that's obvious a mile off.

Perhaps that's some of the problem of Halloween Ends - it can't escape the inescapable, and while it may subvert the journey to get there and offers a refreshingly different finale that channels The Thing and Scream in extremis, its muted appeal may not be as widely appreciated as perhaps it should.