Ferrari: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Adam Driver, Shailene Woodley, Penelope Cruz
Director: Michael Mann

Heat director Michael Mann's tale of the storm clouds gathering around Enzo Ferrari and his company is less about life on the track and more about one man's quest to get round a lap of his own life without smashing into any obstacles.

An impassive Driver, complete with House of Gucci accent, stars as Ferrari, against a backdrop of 1957 that sees financial ruin circling around his racing car world - and one that sees him forced into a confrontation with his wife Laura over his future.

But with Ferrari gambling everything on one last race and also his own empire's personal future, the noose grows tighter around his neck as a secret son, a marriage in its final days and a legacy all hang in the balance.

Ferrari is a dour affair, one that plays out more as a family drama with racing tacked on around the periphery. 

It's not a bad way to tell a story, but in Mann's execution, the air is let out of the tyres, and the cinematic car appears to be chugging when it should just be speeding along. Driver does nothing to endear the monstrous Ferrari to an audience, playing him as a Machiavellian plotter, pulling at the strings, but emotionally unable to face the consequences.

One scene sees a driver killed in an horrific crash at a test site, but rather than mourn Ferrari blames the driver, scolds his motivations and then in the same breath tells a hopeful driver to come see him on Monday for a job. The effect is obviously monstrous, and Driver's almost aloof countenance throughout helps seal Ferrari as less of an enigma and more of an abhorrent human above all else.

It's evident in the scenes with Cruz and Woodley too, with both having a different emotional edge, but with neither truly feeling like they gel. Woodley appears to have the bigger part, but then she dwindles out of existence in the script, a casualty of a character being reduced to a mechanic rather than a fully-fledged one.

There's too much of a casual approach deployed throughout - and while the racing scenes, with all their bluster and engine noise soar, much of the emotional drama feels too distant, too icy and too designed to engender indifference in the audience.

The narrative is too much of a spluttering engine to engage - it may have a high intensity in places, but Mann's inherent inability here to deploy that throughout proves to be a fatal flaw that confines this more to the pitlane than to a soaring chequered flag.

The Zone of Interest: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Sandra Huller, Christian Friedel

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Loosely based on Martin Amis' 2014 novel of the same name, Under The Skin director Jonathan Glazer's Zone of Interest is more a film about atmosphere and horror than any driven plot.

It's also a film of extreme dissociation which is evocative and terrifying in equal measure as the entirely mundane plays out.

Friedel and Huller play Rudolph and Hedwig Höss, who live in the house behind Auschwitz. Rudolph runs the camp and is concerned with efficiencies, whereas Hedwig is more concerned with making a life for their children and tending to the garden.

Both seem disconnected with the daily horrors that emerge from nearby, with Hedwig even revealing they're living their dream life and revelling in her title as "Queen of Auschwitz".

There's little plot as such in Zone of Interest, and it's more a film of atmospherics, unsettling imagery and unanswered questions of why they don't ever remark on what goes on over the walls.

Glazer is less interested in providing these answers, but what emerges from the Oscar-nominated film is a damning indictment of how complicit people can be in the horrors around them and how the banality of evil emerges in the most harrowing ways.

Interestingly much of the film is shot from a distance, as if to suggest Glazer doesn't want you to empathise with his subjects when they're told they have to leave their home; there's a distinct lack of intimacy that makes this movie feel even more upsetting - almost as if audiences are being compelled to disassociate from the subjects on screen and consequently your horrot at their ignorance is magnified.

Complete with Mica Levi's dissonant soundtrack, Glazer crafts some disturbing imagery, always just in the background of the frame. From shots of chimneys belching out endless smoke from the Nazis' push to exterminate the Jews to the orange glow that lights up the bedroom windows at night, there's plenty that will take your breath away - and not in a good way.

From conversations about how best to improve efficiencies at the camp to a confession that Höss makes that he was thinking of ways to gas a room full of his peers saluting his work, the Zone of Interest is shocking in ways you'd never, ever expect.

But the fact it does it all in such a matter of fact way is equally as disturbing. 

The end result is utterly numbing; and while this isn't a film about drama or a film about giving answers as to why the Höss family adults never mention what's going on around them, it's a horrifying indictment of those in the past - and also the present - who simply carry out orders or who wilfully choose to ignore what is around them.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Movie Review

Cast: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Lydia Peckham, Kevin Durand, William H Macy, Peter Macon, Travis Jeffery

Director: Wes Ball

Potentially kickstarting a new trilogy for the Weta Digital-led 2011 Apes series is a major challenge for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

In truth, it doesn't quite hit the highs it needs to to launch a compelling new narrative, but an intriguing second half of the film hints at what could lie ahead for the franchise.

Set "many generations" after the death of Caesar the ape, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes focuses on Teague's Noa, an ape who's forced to embark on a journey after his clan is attacked by a rogue faction of apes.

As Noa heads out of the life he's known driven by revenge, he discovers Freya Allan's Mae, a human who appears lost - but has a dangerous secret of her own.

Much like the prior Apes franchise entrants did, this latest dwells on the duality of human nature - but at times, it distinctively feels more serviceable than sensational, lacking an emotional edge that was inherent in the first films from the get go.

That's not to say Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes isn't visually spectacular, with lush backdrops and villages overgrown with foliage resembling some of the Downtown vistas of The Last Of Us Part II videogame in parts. Once again the apes FX are sensationally done, but there's a distinct nagging sensation that there's nothing as new as there was in 2011 some 13 years on.

The first half of the film feels clunky in parts, a script demanding acquaintance with our new heroes and while Teague and latterly Macon as orangutan and Caesar-teachings follower Raka form a strong bond on the journey, some of the emotional beats feel off when they should soar.

Themes of religious idolatry, perversion of beliefs and elements of Mad Max Fury Road pervade much of the back half of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes as ideologies clash. And it's here, in the second half of the 2hour 25 minute run time that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes finally starts to come alive, with Noa facing ethical dilemmas that feel nuanced and offer stakes. It's also where Allan comes a little more into her own and the potential for future episodes begin to take form.

Granted those in charge faced an insurmountable task given how the 2011 franchise offered real stakes - emotional edges, narrative thrills and of its time FX; but while Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is perfectly serviceable fare that has some genuine moments of tension and suspense, its drive to launch a new franchise feels more muted than perhaps could be expected.

Dream Scenario: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Dylan Gelula, Michael Cera, Julianne Nicholson
Director: Kristoffer Borgli

A seemingly cautious tale about the perils of newfound fame, Kristoffer Borgli's Dream Scenario starts off in an offbeat manner and continues down that winding path to a slightly disturbing conclusion.

Cage is Paul Matthews, a balding, bewildered, Parka-clad college professor, whose career is stalled and whose desire to be a published author is frustrated. Sidelined at home, Matthews yearns to be more - and inadvertently finds that coming true when he is told by strangers that he appears nightly in their dreams.

Initially troubled by the comments that he's too passive in the dreams, Matthews leans into the new-found fame. But the more consumed he is by it, the more aggressively he appears in peoples' dreams, ultimately forcing them away from him.

A mix of comedy and horror, packed into a dreamlike state, Dream Scenario's rhythms take a bit to get used to as the more surreal and satirical edges come to the fore. But they never quite deliver something sharp and incisive about Matthews' predicament, nor do they explicitly say much about the social media world and ethos of fame they look to poke fun at.

Thankfully Cage delivers a strong performance as his character enjoys the trappings of fame while negotiating the crippling insecurities of his own. Borgli, whose last film Sick of Myself also ploughed a similar furrow, gets the best out of his lead, but never once mocks his predicament or his reaction to it. Cage is never beneath debasing his character but manages to keep it all together in scenes that both feel prescient and awkward.

The result is a kind of empathetic take on the narcissism of the culture, but with a more gentle edge throughout. Blessed with menace and sadness in equal measure, the dark comedy comes to the fore, but there's an inescapable lingering feeling at the end that it could have been more.

Doctor Who: The Devil's Chord: Preview

The second episode (technically the third counting the Christmas special) of the Doctor Who reboot is likely to be the most polarising among long-term fans.

It's also the hardest to preview, as most of the shocks and surprises come from some truly brazen moments committed to screen, most of which are too spoiler-heavy to reveal in a preview.

When Ruby's given the choice to go anywhere, she chooses Abbey Road in 1963 to see the Beatles at work. But when the Doctor takes her there, the pair discover the world is in danger and sits on the brink of chaos thanks to the intervention of Jinkx Monsoon's Maestro, an enemy the Doctor does not believe he can defeat...

The Devil's Chord takes some big, big swings - but it opens in a way that both shows off how Who works best by making the most mundane of things as menacing as possible. In the way that plastic was irrevocably made evil way back in The Terror of the Autons, Russell T Davies makes a simple piano lesson one of the darkest and most terrifying moments thanks to the show's opening scenes.

With the production design catching all the elements of the era with ease, it's the details that makes The Devil's Chord shine. 

But this episode is easily Jinkx Monsoon's time to shine - and they seize with incredible gusto, bombast and occasionally moments of OTT scenery-chewing.  It's like the Cheshire Cat crossed with the Joker.

Yet when Maestro needs to flip to malevolence, the speed at which Monsoon changes pace is utterly enthralling. Matched up against Gatwa's charisma, the screen is filled with the kind of characters that make the show what it is.

With mentions of Totters Lane, Susan and the Doctor being scared about his soul being torn in two after bigeneration, there's much to sink your teeth into here. And that's before the question of Ruby Sunday's existence comes under the spotlight again and an apparent issue with the TARDIS. Davies is throwing a lot out in subtle ways throughout; hopefully the episodes stick the landing.

Yet if Monsoon is the star of this episode, it's not to detract from Millie Gibson and Ncuti Gatwa's partnership again, which here feels like mates in space but also gives pauses to consider their characters' vulnerabilities.

There will be much to discuss about The Devil's Chord after its aired (that ending) but for now, suffice it to say that the second episode very much sets the tone after the first - it's big on brassy bold moves and shows every inclination that the series is once again strenuously rebooting and expanding, while staying true to its roots.

Doctor Who: The Devil's Chord premieres on Disney+ on May 10.

Doctor Who: Space Babies: Preview

Finally after what has seemed like months, the brand new season of the brand new iteration of Doctor Who is here, with Ncuti Gatwa at the helm of the TARDIS controls.

And there's no sidestepping it - after the relatively fantastical edges of the Christmas special The Church on Ruby Road that introduced Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday, the show is bigger, bolder and perhaps more bonkers than could be expected.

Working off a traditional format of a base under siege story from the pantheon of Doctor Who's past, writer Russell T Davies'  first script of this run is about as mad as they come while laying out some more of the ground work of what clearly is to be the series' arc and Ruby Sunday's mysterious birth.

In his first trek across space, the Doctor takes Ruby to a baby farm (via a minor detour into the past and dinosaurs for a quick gag that recalls the Mavity schtick from Wild Blue Yonder) that's being menaced by a bogeyman below. Soon the pair are caught in a battle for survival, while trying to save the babies on the space station.

Even just writing those words seem like madness for Doctor Who - but at its heart, Space Babies has a very traditional first episode for a new companion travelling with the Doctor appeal. 

It may be dismissed as puerile and slight by some, but Davies peppers his script in the opening moments with the basic facts about the Doctor, continuing on with Chris Chibnall's controversial Timeless Child story arc - but long term fans will be thrilled by the teasing of a certain Time Lord name, no doubt thrown in by Davies to titillate and cock a sly nod at canon. (There's also a cheeky reference to Star Trek too.)

But what is clear about Space Babies is how accessible it is for all.

While Davies borrows from his own past for one scene - specifically The End of The World - it's in his Doctor that it feels fresh and new. Sure there are visual parallels to it all, but it is Ncuti Gatwa's performance that ripples with so much charisma, it threatens to pour out of the screen.

It's not hyperbole to say that Gatwa does it all in this episode. From manic edges to solemnity, there's a level of joy in his performance that's addictive. Paired up with Gibson, who's no wide-eyed naif, the two of them positively sparkle with chemistry and while they feel fresh, there's definitely the kind of vibe that both Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston had in the last reboot of the show - it's infectious stuff.

Space Babies sets the agenda well (including Davies' insistence that everyone is welcome via a speech over being born beautiful and "nobody grows up wrong" delivered by the Doctor), and is a wildly widely accessible story for all to jump on - it may feel slight in parts but it's clear that everyone is having fun on this show. 

From the incredibly slick look the show now has through to the energy that leaps from the screen, what's most noticeable about this new run of Doctor Who is how big it feels - in a way that it has never really done before. However, thanks to its enigmatic leads, there's also a feeling that the drama is ripe and there to be exploited when the time comes.

Doctor Who: Space Babies premieres on Disney+ on May 10.