Breath: Blu Ray Review

Breath: Blu Ray Review

A typical coming-of-age tale told in a slightly atypical fashion, former The Mentalist actor Simon Baker steps behind (and in front of) the camera for this adaptation of Tim Winton's book.

Centring on two kids, Pikelet and Loonie (Samson Coulter, sensitive and thoughtful and Ben Spence, instinctive and amusing) growing up in Western Australia in the 70s, Baker's Sando serves as mentor to the duo, helping them take in the waves.

But Sando keeps pushing them to go further, despite the condemnation of his other half Eva (Elizabeth Debicki, in waif and distant form) - however, Pikelet's reticence tests the boundaries of friendship with Loonie and his mentorship with Sando, as well as his own family unit.

Breath is an intriguing piece, simultaneously feeling distant in some of its narrative parts and yet frighteningly cohesive in others, and after reflection.

Perhaps consisting of one too many slow mo surfing or at water shots, Breath can be forgiven its indulgence in the waves of the ocean, thanks to some truly impressive water shots by cinematographer Rick Rifici. Pulsing waves are shot from below the surface, each one bubbling by and each showing the tumult in the relationships; the symbolism is not lost.

Elsewhere, some narrative threads feel a little unexplored; a potential school girlfriend for Pikelet is more dalliance and distraction and family tensions are hinted at rather than endorsed further.

But it's herein that lies the rub for Breath. On reflection after the lights have gone up, these relationships are explored in the way a teenager may approach them - distance helps evaluate what's transpired and why it's that way. Certainly, the relationship between Eva and Sando appears an odd one, a couple of lost souls who've found each other and are ebbing in and out like the flow of the ocean - there's much in Winton's prose that hints and there's much in Baker's restrained direction that offers deeper connections when probed.

In the relationship between the sensitive Pikelet and the gregarious Loonie, Coulter and Spence gel well, each pushing and pulling the tensions where necessary; feeling naturalistic in many ways, and evocative in others, this is a relationship that needs no deeper dissection; it breathes on its own and works well because of it.

"I've never seen men do something so beautiful, so pointless and so elegant" intones Pikelet in his later years - but in many ways, he could be hinting at the relationships that come from growing up; in caressing the tensions, and the triumphs of youth and friendships, Breath inhales deeply on its intensity and strips away its own profundity in places.

Breath is at once a complex beast at times, and yet one that feels familiar and simple, elegiacally executed - in many ways, it's one film that demands further introspection and re-examination. 

Avengers: Infinity War: Blu Ray Review

Avengers: Infinity War: Blu Ray Review

With a cast list as long as the page count of War and Peace, and capping a decade of Marvel films, it apparently has all led to this.

After numerous teases, various hints and gradual reveals, the Avengers, still ruptured after Civil War factions and broken by various continual conflicts, now face their greatest threat - Thanos (Josh Brolin).

A despot of intergalactic infamy, and emerging from the cosmic shadows, Thanos is collecting six Infinity Stones, aka the McGuffins of the franchise which have been glimpsed before.

With the Avengers and their various allies determined to stop Thanos and his army waging war on reality, it looks like this is the battle to end all battles - the fate of Earth, the Avengers collective and existence itself has never been more uncertain.

After countless build ups and the growing feeling that the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise has become stale with comedy elements undercutting any sense of drama, there's a real feeling that Avengers: Infinity War has to draw a line in the sand, and lay down some stakes for all involved.

For a large part, Avengers: Infinity War walks the tightrope of uncertainty for all the characters you've come to love (thanks to repeated over-exposure over the past decade) and imbues proceedings with an occasional sense of dread for some.

However, the writing keeps a lot of it emotionally grounded with themes of sacrifice and human selfishness and fallibility mingling and bubbling away throughout thanks to some briefly engaging interactions.

But it has to be said, that doesn't stop Avengers: Infinity War from becoming, at times, Avengers: Infinity Bore - nor does it feel like some of the inherent emotional heft falls flat.

With its straight-into-the-action-and-peril proceedings picking directly up from the end of Thor: Ragnarok and the Asgardian survivors facing off a ship from Thanos, the film decides to simply settle a lot of proceedings on the punch-fight-exposition-fight-exposition-fight method.

It's well executed as it bounces around the globe and into space, but there's definitely an over-riding feeling of weariness as the relentless CGI action kicks and smashes its way through (and certainly, a couple of scenes creak under the weight of being generated and rendered).

It tries to fights the curse of quite obvious writing in parts with lots of patently obvious signposting (all of which are too spoilery to discuss) and doesn't quite succeed at times, and there's definitely a feeling of set-up throughout.

As a sense of spectacle, Avengers: Infinity Wardoes deliver what the rabid Marvel fanboys want - a team up of epic proportions and scale and the Russo brothers deliver it mostly with considerable aplomb. Handling the unwieldly character roster with ease, most of the cast get a moment or some time in the spotlight (albeit with brevity and largely through a fight scene or two - and certainly Hulk's reunion with Black Widow is a massive disappointment), and it's a relative reward for the decade of set-up.

The Guardians provide the obligatory (and occasionally annoying) laughs as usual after entering to Rubberband Man, but teeter dangerously close to ripping the stakes' foundations from under proceedings with their flippancy. And disappointingly, Wakanda's involvement feels piecemeal, rote and written to provide a Phantom Menace fight redux sequence in the final act.

However, it's Brolin's motion capture Thanos who impresses most in Avengers: Infinity War.
Built up as a major threat in the preceding films, Thanos is a relatively complex and solid villain with the emotional depth and degrees of tragedy which give weight and heft to proceedings and parts of his motive. This is the villain the Marvel Cinematic Universe has needed and the threat that comes from him is as tangible as it is terrifying.

There is a feeling though throughout Avengers: Infinity War that death should have come knocking a bit more and certainly for some of the bigger names within the ensemble to truly hit the emotional mark, and while the oddly audacious but curiously emotion-free downbeat ending is to be lauded, it does reek of the usual tropes of the genre - ie fantasy deaths never really tend to stick, and slightly feels like a quick "this can be done over" in the next film - and certainly, there is a distinct lack of feeling permeating the screen.

Epic in popcorn entertainment and scale, but disappointingly limited in parts of its narrative, the at-times soapy and occasionally narratively uneven Avengers: Infinity War may feel like Marvel's trying to clear the table in lieu of the next phase, and setting up for the next one. (Though the time to be daring and dispatch with the post-credits sequence has been squandered with this one).

It possibly could have done with easing up a little here and there, and giving space to breathe, however, in terms of rewarding the fans of the franchise, Avengers: Infinity War certainly ups the game, even if it still doesn't really take the bold chances and daring gambles it could have easily afforded to after a decade and 18 films. 

The Darkest Minds: Film Review

The Darkest Minds: Film Review

Cast: Amandla Stenberg, Harris Dickinson, Skylan Brooks, Gwendoline Christie
Director: Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Take a pinch of Young Adult, a snip of The Host, a snifter of The Hunger Games, sprinkle liberally with a shoe-horned romance, mix in some young X-Men, drop in some elements of Avengers: Infinity War, top with a hint of everything-you've-seen-before-in-this-genre and you've got new film The Darkest Minds.

Set six years after children mysteriously started dying and survivors were considered worthy only of rounding up and putting in camps, The Darkest Minds stars Stenberg as Ruby, a teenager who's broken out of a camp, thanks to the help of a mysterious doctor (Mandy Moore).

But unsure whether to trust her, Ruby ends up on the run with conveniently-nearby-hidden-kids Zu (who can control electricity), Liam (telekinesis to go with wooden good looks) and brainy Chubs (looks like a Fresh Prince cum Dope extra).

Searching for a utopia for the children who survived, Ruby and the gang are hunted from all quarters.

Frustratingly, The Darkest Minds has some potential.

Complete with a soundtrack clearly aimed at its audience of YA readers, and adapted from a book by Alexandra Bracken, it knows what it wants to do - even if it feels like a patchwork mesh of every YA film you've ever seen. (Those for those exposed to it for the first time, it could become something,
thanks to its diverse leading cast).

But rushing through dramatic edges, shoehorning narrative elements in and giving them nary a second to breathe or dispatching them with a laissez-faire approach does little to build this first outing into any kind of franchise.

It's even worse with the cursory way threats are tossed aside, having built them up to be something substantial. Matters are not helped by an obvious villain and some truly wooden acting when emotional clashes come to the fore.

Perhaps the greatest crime of the YA mesh with X-Men is how the film doesn't really resolve itself, preferring to dangle narrative elements for potential sequels and leaving to a feeling of frustration in the film's denouement, where poignancy and emotional heft should have done the heavy lifting.

There's potential for darkness here, and perhaps the target teen audience would have appreciated some truth (shots of kids being executed are truly chilling) but rather than build dystopia, The Darkest Minds is content solely to play it too safe to be relevant or compelling.

Rampage: DVD Review

Rampage: DVD Review

There is only so far Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's charisma and endless muscles will go - and his latest flick, Rampage where he re-teams with San Andreas director Brad Peyton, sorely tests that.

Johnson plays Davis Okoye, a former species forces cum animal saviour who's now a primatologist.Bonded with a white silverback gorilla called George (and who gets a brief back story flashback later in the piece), Davis finds his world rocked when a science experiment from space causes his friend to change from gentle Curious George Harry and the Hendersons' beast to roaring destructive angry King Kong type.

Things are further complicated when the evil corporate bigwigs, who created the genetic editing process, want their DNA back and hatch a plot to get the creatures back to the city.

In a race against time to save his bud, and with a shady government agency on his heels, headed up by a hammier friendlier version of The Walking Dead's Negan himself Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and a former genetic scientist (007 star Naomie Harris) in tow, Davis has it all to do.

Based on the 1980s video game where monsters menaced the city and picked off human armies, Rampage shows clearly its video game edge - ie little to no cohesive plot, scrabbling from one section to the next without any care for logic or anything to trouble the brain.

The problem with Rampage is that if you're expecting dumb, you'll get it in spades.
If you want some god-awful dialogue thrown in there as well (Morgan's agent spouting the line that "When science shits the bed, I'm the one called in to change the sheets" being the worst), then you'll be happy.
And if you simply want to see a bit of rote CGI monster smash city / Kaiju fight, you'll be satiated, but not satisfied.

Rampage, despite Johnson's usual charisma as he plays Dr Doolittle and beast bestie, is just not enough of anything to warrant much more than dumb.

Characters are woefully underwritten (step forward, Naomie Harris' expositionary scientist) and the bad guys are laughably paper-thin, but Rampage tries to take itself too seriously, when really it should just embrace the stupidity of what its premise is. 

There are signs that it does this in the end, with Johnson rolling out his action jackson figure that we've all been expecting, but it comes too late in the day to really resonate.

WETA Digital's work with George is, as you'd expect from the Apes trilogy, stellar; but their work on the other creatures, while homage to the original villains of the game, stands out as looking a bit wobbly in places and less realistic than it could be.

Ultimately, and unfortunately, Rampage is not quite the popcorn thrill it should be - while it's at heart, a mash up of buddy movie and monster flick, the B-movie pretensions are what hold it back. It may be as dumb as a bag of spanners, but it's not smart enough to use that to its strength.

By refusing to embrace fully what it could be, Rampage goes from being a slam dunk to a film that shows that not everything Johnson touches can turn to gold, even if he coats it all in a few knowing nods here and there. 

Happy End: DVD Review

Happy End: DVD Review

Michael Haneke returns to the festival circuit with something purporting to be lighter fare than his usual, but still with some of his usual concerns.

Centring on a construction dynasty and their gradual unravelling, a truly stellar cast taking on various roles as the Laurent family.

When the company's rocked by the ground giving way at a venue (an allegory much to be applied to the family itself), the various pressures on the Laurent clan become apparent. Combined with a suicide attempt from a family member and a patriarch determined to go on his terms, there's a lot to deal with for them all...

Happy End may be a comedy, but it seems to have forgone the laughs for something a little bleaker.

It's really only in its last 10 minutes that the humour seems to come to the fore and the film adds a few lighter touches. Described as a satire on bourgeois values, Happy End is a little lacking and frankly, in places, a touch dull as things happen off screen which are supposed to be of emotional consequence and leave you frustrated at what to cling on to.

With swathes of time devoted to a chatroom conversation in its full pixel glory, there are times when Happy End can sorely try your patience.

Where it not for Isabelle Huppert's calm composure, Toby Jones' presence and a searing turn from a young newcomer Fantine Harduin as a child entered into the dynasty, this would be sorely close to walk-out territory.

Haneke may be playing with some familiar themes of suicide and euthanasia, and there are some moments blessed by a scion of precision dialogue, but Happy End's wide varying eye means that it rarely feels like it settles on one subject for long enough for you to emotionally engage with.  

The Spy Who Dumped Me: Film Review

The Spy Who Dumped Me: Film Review

Cast: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Gillian Anderson, Sam Heughan
Director: Susanna Fogel

Mixing a bit of raunchy comedy with some spy action and bundling it up in the usual Kate McKinnon schtick actually works reasonably well for The Spy Who Dumped Me.

Kunis stars as Audrey, newly 30 and dumped by her boyf Drew (Theroux, in casting mode for a Bond style role). After a night out with her BFF Morgan (McKinnon, once again killing it with ad-libs and goofiness), Audrey finds herself thrust into the middle of a conspiracy and on the run in Europe.

On her tail is Sebastian (Outlander's Sam Heughan, a little stiff here) who may or may not be trustworthy and a group of eastern European agents...

The Spy Who Dumped Me has some funny touches.

Its opening gambit mixes some pretty impressive spy shenanigans with Theroux taking centre stage before it collapses into a style over substance type global jaunt that hops around with nary a concern for its admittedly flimsy central plot.

It's grating because the spy elements of the film feel secondary to everything else, and given this is the hook the comedy's predicated on, as the film propels itself through its nearly two hour run time, these are the parts which stand out more - and certainly in the beats of the finale, degrees of apathy have set in.

Fortunately, the whole thing is genuinely saved by both Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon.

Their BFF-ship is joyous to behold and the bond of sisterhood is there for all to see, rather than being spun out in an empowerment message aimed at cloying sentiment (though parts of sentiment creep in at the end.)

It works because of the genuine laughs proffered by the duo, whether it's McKinnon spitballing under Fogel's direction or Kunis playing her patented mix of naive and naughty as the stay-at-home who's starting to come out of her shell.

Throughout The Spy Who Dumped Me, this is the one takeaway - when a female comedy is done right, it's fresh, bright and breezy. And thrust into a genre that's primarily been a man's world for far too long, Kunis and McKinnon soar and show no signs of fatigue. Whilst there's no hint there could be a sequel (other than a post credits scene which hints at it) it has to be said that a second outing with this pair would be no bad thing - it's just if they do team up again, more work needs to be done with the spy shenanigans, because given the right script, these could be spies to love.

Life Of The Party: DVD Review

Life Of The Party: DVD Review

Melissa McCarthy's Life of the Party feels tame, uninspired and in some parts, stretched as long as a college lecture fronted by a droning professor.

McCarthy plays Deanna, a mom who starts the film dropping her daughter off for college and ends up moments later on the cusp of divorce and homeless.

Deciding to go back to college (where her daughter is) to finish the year she never completed, Deanna embraces college life - and the books - like before.

Turning into a mother for some of the sorority's lost, and dating a younger man, Deanna finds her place - before facing the obvious third act obstacles.

Despite some touches - a great double act with Maya Rudolph as Deanna's friend being the highlight- Life of the Party tries to mix awkward banter with McCarthy's knack for trademark pratfalls and physical humiliation.

It works in parts, but for large swathes of the film, the bumpy to ally mixed film hits too many lulls and cliches on the way to prove a winning formula.

It helps less that the rating tones the film down, making it hit more of a TV movie special than a riotous romp fest. But in some ways that's perhaps where the truisms of McCarthy's continued success reaches - her endless relatability to sections of the cinema going audience proving to be fertile ground for those looking to spend a dollar on women-led films, or searching for girls night out fare.

The problem with Life Of The Party is that it's never quite as strong enough as it needs to be; it fails to hit some of the highs, while eschewing the typical teenager embarrassed by my parents trope and narrative. It also never quite hits the empowerment high it's aiming for either, preferring to be a muted call, rather than a rallying fanfare.

It strives to be different, but ultimately, Life Of The Party is a party few will fully want to attend til the end - much like any party eventually does, it rather outstays its welcome.