If Beale Street Could Talk: Film Review

If Beale Street Could Talk: Film Review

Cast: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Ed Skrein
Director: Barry Jenkins

Based on James Baldwin's novel, and opening with a quote from him, the gorgeously shot If Beale Street Could Talk is once again proof that Jenkins knows lighting perfection from shot to shot.

Told across different time periods, Jenkins' latest is the story of childhood friends and lovers Tish (Layne) and Fonny (James) who in the 1970s in downtown Harlem found themselves the victims of an egregious crime of the times.

When Fonny's arrested and imprisoned for the rape of a neighbourhood woman, Tish vows to fight to clear his name and get him out of jail. But their plans for a future together are derailed by constant stops and starts in the quest to reunite.

If Beale Street Could Talk is lyrical poetry personified.

Much like Moonlight did, the film takes a deep dive into its subjects, placing them front and centre of every shot, bathed in different lighting moments to evoke mood and internal turmoil and emotion.

But it also conveys the deep love of the duo, with many shots being close ups of their face as the slow, quiet and deliberate tale weaves its web over the audience. However, it has to be said, despite the layered performances of the central leads, and the sterling work done by King in a supporting role as the mother, the film feels like it holds you away at emotional arm's length.

It's an interesting stance, with its languid pace doing much to keep the audience at bay, and stopping the anger at the injustice rising up. Sure, there are some racist cops of the period, that feel like they've been ripped from the fringes of movie Detroit; and there's some commentary on life of the time, but there's never the righteous indignation being given the chance to rise up and continue.

It's perhaps Jenkins' approach to the story which has been told time and time again; he cares not for the well-worn tropes (all of which are present and correct), but is rather more consumed with the details of the situation, lacing all of it with a trembling OST that evocatively quivers when needed.

As commentary on the time, and the period as well as the crimes, If Beale Street Could Talk falls short - but what it does provide is something more mellow, more intimate and perhaps more astounding because of it.

It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but If Beale Street Could Talk is a masterclass of how to make a film and a well-worn subject look incredibly good, deeply rich and resonant, even if it does feel emotionally aloof.

Captain Marvel: Film Review

Captain Marvel: Film Review

Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn, Lashana Lynch, Annette Bening
Director: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

It's hard to pinpoint exactly why Marvel's latest solid outing Captain Marvel doesn't quite fly in the way that perhaps you'd be expecting.

Is the fact that in a decade and twenty films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is the first with a female lead, giving the film a kind of timely resonance that's culturally mirrored in the Time's Up movement?

Or is the fact that a deeply feminist film of a woman hero who's been told to suppress her emotions as they don't make her strong suffers from an abundance of mansplaining and on-the-nose music cues?

Whatever it is, Captain Marvel's Brie Larson deserves the accolades, even if the material isn't quite up to her stellar standards.

Larson plays amnesiac Carol Danvers, who we join in space as she's briefed on a mission to infiltrate Skrull (who look like 80s comic Eagle's Doomlord) territory and retrieve a Kree spy. But when Vers, as she's initially known, is captured by Mendelsohn's Talos, she glimpses a prior life, setting her on a collision course with both 1990s Earth and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Nick Fury (a digitally de-aged Jackson).

Captain Marvel is an intriguing non-linear film and uses a softer methodology to impart yet another origin story.

Ahead of Avengers: Endgame, it's more of a necessity than a creative gamble, and because of that there are parts of Captain Marvel which feel uneven and even, whisper it, uncertain.

Larson's ferocity works best when she has something to work with. And while the trope of the amnesiac superhero trying to remember who they are is an all-too familiar one, there are moments when Danvers feels more hollow than she should be, and beholden only to what others make her.

Certainly, it's a problem for any film introducing a character with literal deus-ex-machina powers and how to make them realistic and relatable.

Larson gives her all, and the film's spunk comes from uniting her with Fury in 90s US (even if the film's heavy-handed inclusion of 90s throwbacks groans from excessive over-use), setting up the usual fish-out-of-water shenanigans and then immediately smartly side-lining them. Jackson clearly has fun here, and Larson helps him come to life in some scenes that crackle along.

Rising above the script's duller edges, Larson gives the film an emotional core that's a hollow cypher at the start. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in scenes with her former fellow pilot, played by Lashana Lynch. Their understated interplay feels warm, human and rife with a history that's hinted at rather than explicitly explored.

Equally successful is Mendelsohn's Talos, a Skree baddie who has depth and nuance (and an Aussie accent through the prosthetics).

While the final act has Doctor Strange level of trippiness and spectacle, sillier edges start to filter through as the "Without us, you're only human" message threatens to overwhelm what is, at times, underwhelming.

What cripples portions of Captain Marvel is that the makers are so determined to proudly fly the banner for "the message" that they occasionally take a sledgehammer to crush open a nut.

A fight scene to Just A Girl negates some of Danvers' power and feels like a back-handed compliment, whereas a sequence of Danvers' repeated rising up against various knockbacks could be dismissed as manipulative and over-stated when taken out of context.

But placed within an audience of young boys and girls, this moment, coupled with the fact that Captain Marvel is retrofitted into continuity and is shown to be more powerful than any of the Avengers brings an important and timely message home with some subtlety - for girls robbed of cinematic figureheads and for boys who need to see the woman can be more powerful.

Far Cry: New Dawn: PS4 Review

Far Cry: New Dawn: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by Ubisoft

17 years after the end of Far Cry 5, when the world went boom in a nuclear dawn, a new world has arisen.

Confined underground, the residents of Hope County have lived in bunkers awaiting the time it's mostly safe to emerge in the post Joseph Seed world. And so it is that Ubisoft returns to Montana for the spin-off to Far Cry 5, a game that in all honesty, does little to mess with the formula, but tinkers around the edges to engage you further.

As usual with Far Cry, you are the protagonist, facing off against a hopelessly written antagonist -
and given a bit of grind work to do to unlock perks, and upgrades for weapons.

The chief antagonists in the post-apocalyptic world are the Highwaymen, a group of gaudy gangsters who are largely dressed in motocross gear and led by vicious twins Mickey and Lou. Your mission is to pull together a resistance, build up your base of Prosperity, explore the world and of course, save the day.

The interesting thing about Far Cry New Dawn is that the tinkering around the edges actually engages, even if occasionally it feels repetitious.

From clearing an outpost to deciding whether to let it loose to your enemy again before trying to take it back, New Dawn brings a harder edge to some of the proceedings, forcing you to rethink some of your actions and strategies. It's a clever touch that adds much to the game, and makes you think tactics, rather than just killing.

It's also good that New Dawn has a few familiar faces throughout to make it feel like the world's still there - and while the more colourful edges of pinks and graffiti hide some of the darker edges of the story (survivors eating dog meat etc), the familiarity of the world from Far Cry 5 is a nice touch. But equally, if you didn't play that, it's not alienating.

On the down side, parts of the game do feel repetitive, meaning missions are a necessity rather than a joy. And micro-transactions are a disappointment too.

The twins are such blank slate characters, not a patch on prior villains from the series, making every encounter feel rote and yawn-worthy.

Ultimately, Far Cry: New Dawn works if you want to put your mind at the door and fight on for what you're after - it offers hope for the future installments, and is still worth immersing yourself within.

Riverdale, Beverly Hills 90210 actor Luke Perry dies

Riverdale, Beverly Hills 90210 actor Luke Perry dies

Riverdale and Beverly Hills 90210 actor Luke Perry has died.

He was 52.

The actor had suffered a massive stroke last Wednesday, and unfortunately didn't recover.

The same day he fell ill, it was announced Beverly Hills 90210 would be returning with the original cast.

The Prodigy's Keith Flint has died

The Prodigy's Keith Flint has died

Shocking news out of England this morning that The Prodigy's demon-haired front man Keith Flint has died.

He was just 49.

It's believed he took his own life over the weekend, according to Liam Howlett of the band.

The band fell into infamy in the 90s with songs like Firestarter, Breathe and the notoriously banned Smack My Bitch Up,

Win a Marvel's Captain Marvel prize pack

Win a Marvel's Captain Marvel prize pack

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Robin Hood: DVD Review

Robin Hood: DVD Review

This is not the story you know.

So intones the voiceover that bookends the 2018 version of Robin Hood, a quite frankly baffling piece of film that seems intent on making a Call Of Duty version of the myth, and setting it against a backdrop of 80s rock video pyrotechnics.

Egerton is Robin of Loxley, a Lord of the manor of Nottingham, whose life is changed when he's drafted up to the crusades and torn from the love of his life Marian (Hewson, at times channelling a younger Emily Blunt). On returning injured from the Crusades, Robin (Rob to his mates, bizarrely) finds he's been declared dead - and teaming up with Foxx's John, he begins to rob from the Sheriff of Nottingham's war taxes to help.

But John advises him the best way to upset the apple cart, is to cosy up to the sheriff...

The 2018 version of Robin Hood is a film that's more about the fast cuts, and action than the subtlety and nuance of other versions.

Mixing comedy as well, Robin Hood feels like a hybrid of so many different elements from its Iraq war style Crusades opening through to its death-metal pyrotechnics; nothing quite gels as it should.

And while Egerton delivers a variant of his Kingsman character, and gives The Hood some vigilante justice elements that wouldn't feel out of place in a CW series, there's very much a feeling of Foxx playing Alfred to Egerton's Bruce Wayne in the start of Batman Begins.

There's a hint of Bathurst playing fast and loose with style here and trying to set up a sort of Robin Hood cinematic universe (implied by its end), but what transpires is a film that flounders for any identity of its own, other than a downpat action wannabe.

It's set up well as an idea, but Robin Hood fails to hit the mark as much as it should, making it feel like a splendid misfire more than anything else.