Queen & Slim

Atatiana Jefferson
Botham Jean
Oscar Grant
Walter Scott
Trayvon Martin
Freddie Gray
Tamir Rice
Michael Brown
Alton Sterling
Ramarley Graham

These names ring a bell don't they. They should. 10 African American people murdered by the police. Just a fraction of those killed so far this century. Their crime? Being the wrong colour. Minding their own business. In their own homes. In their car. Queen & Slim is a new film that asks what if things happened differently? What would happen next?

Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) & Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) are after having the worst first date ever. An awkward dinner ends badly when both are pulled over by a trigger happy traffic cop. Queen, a criminal lawyer knows that their only chance of survival is to run and soon they're heading south and a video of their police encounter has gone viral. Mainstream media is painting them as violent criminals but the black communities they encounter on their way are seeing things rather differently.

Films don't get much more topical than this one. Race in America. The cult of celebrity. It's something else. A rage filled watch paradoxically laced with warmth. A film that puts a magnifying lense on the trauma faced by African Americans everyday and then asks "what if?" The result is a nail bitingly tense & a heartbreakingly romantic watch. Our duo growing closer as the film moves on. Every smile, glimpse, touch ensuring our support for them grows exponentially. Usually watching a romance blossom would be a cause for joy but here it's a reason for fear as the feeling of doom hangs over them constantly. Jodie Turner-Smith & Daniel Kaluuya (both British actors with pitch perfect US accents ) play off each other brilliantly. They've chemistry to burn and it almost feels voyeuristic getting to eavesdrop on their conversations together. Tête-à-têtes about Luther Vandross, black owned businesses & the noise of loud eating segue into heart to hearts about tragedy, betrayal and loss.

As we get to know Queen & Slim we get an insight into the African American psyche from the people they encounter on their journey. The downtrodden, the forgotten (Bokeem Woodbine as Queen's PTSD riddled Uncle is excellent), people who've faced so much hardship they've become indifferent, the younger generation saying NO MORE to a police force openly declaring war on them who see Queen & Slim's situation as a catalyst for change. It's a film you'd hope people would take to heart, a film that puts a face on the stories regularly cropping up in the news. It's a watch that will terrify a certain type of American, those who never want to look up at a black man (Queen says as much in a lovely roadside encounter with a horse). Late in the film there's a sex scene between 2 black people, something Hollywood tends to be terrified of, intercut with a black lives matter rally. It's a fiery moment, drenched in rage and passion and it's going to make the red cap gang choke on their cheerios.

It's hard to believe this is Melina Matsoukas' first film. It feels accomplished and it looks fantastic. Overhead shots closing in on the main couple, showing how claustrophobic their world is getting, widescreen compositions placing them on one side of the screen and their pursuers on the other, two worlds apart with nothing but danger in between. A camera shot dropping below a floor to where a couple hide in a scene that can't help but bring to mind old stories about the underground railroad and the methods they used to conceal escaped slaves. It's a film that uses visual artistry to convey all manner of meaning, Matsoukas knowing that some images say far more than words.

Go see this if it turns up in a cinema near you. It's essential viewing. A couple of plot points late in the story feel a bit formulaic but they won't take the sheen off this. It's an important watch.

I love my cinema pass

There's a tonne of new movies out this Friday. The Rhythm Section, The Lighthouse, Queen & Slim, A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood & Richard Jewell. My local cinema will get at least 4 of them. If things work out right for me i'll get to see at least one of them before January finishes.

This means that in the first month of the year I got to the pictures 12 times. The usual price for a film is €7.50 so that would cost me €90. But no, my monthly pass is €17.50. So i've saved myself €73.50.

Sure the cinema is practically paying me to go. It's costing me under 4 yoyo's a week. How could you go wrong. The only downside is you've the temptation to watch some awful tosh, stuff you'd never go to usually. I watched The Grudge yesterday. I knew it would be bad and I wasn't wrong. Out of the 12 I've seen so far this year I've liked 10. An 83.33% hit rate. I can live with that.

I love my hobby.

The Grudge

In 2002 Ju-On (The Grudge) was released in Japanese cinemas. Technically the 3rd installment, the first 2 parts were released direct to video, it was a big hit in it's homeland and riding on the popularity of the Ringu series of films, became a big draw in Europe and the States too. A bland, toothless American remake followed which of course spawned sequels, each worse than the last. The original Japanese movie had it's fair share of sequels too, none of which lived up to the promise shown in the first movie. Now 18 years later and produced by Mr Evil Dead himself, Sam Raimi, The Grudge is back and yes, its about as good as you'd expect....

Detective Muldoon (Andrea Riseborough) is new in town and she's rattled, a recent widow and struggling to care for herself and her young son Burke. She's a cop and her first call out is for a dead body found mangled beyond comprehension in a car. Clues lead her back to a house at 44 Reyburn drive, an avenue in the town she now calls home. Her new partner, Detective Muldoon (Demián Bichir) is wary though. He's dealt with this house before....

The 2020 version of The Grudge should work. It has a fine cast and it's a film that's not afraid to embrace it's R rating and all the blood and crunch that's permissible at that rating. And yet, there's nothing really here at all. There's no snap, crackle or pop, there's no reason for this continuation of the series, nothing new is brought to the table and ...well it's not a disappointment as much, more of a predictable sigh. These kind of horror movies always do well by trading in on brand recognition and earn their money from an undemanding teen crowd eager for a splash of gore and a jump scare or two but anyone looking for anything else will leave disappointed. Even more will be annoyed by the story's fractious way with chronology. Instead of mystery it's confusing and just as one timeline takes off we jump to another adding frustration to the mix too.

The slowburn dread of the early part of the series was what made it so successful. The way things were every so slightly off, the "did i actually see that" appearances that set you on edge, the unpredictable quirks of Japanese cinema that made anyone who grew up on American horror unnerved. Now 20 years later that's all old hat to us, we know exactly what's going to happen down to knowing exactly when a ghost is going to pop up. It's unnerving alright, unnerving in how foreseeable it all is. Will that dope head off into the dark by herself? Yup. I bet that's a ghost she's talking to. Yup. Ok, something is going to jump out of the darkness in three...two...o.. ya there it is. It doesn't exactly make for riveting viewing and it's annoying because it does some stuff right.

Lin Shaye. The 21st century's most unexpected scream queen

There's a pleasing tangibility and earthiness to it's gorier moments (wrecked fingers and faces will forever disturb...) and it's always nice to see the more horrific moments created with practical effects instead of CGI. The cast too is far better than the story deserves and they do surprisingly good work. Andrea Riseborough's Muldoon grounds the whole story with her gaunt and stark portrayal of the aftermath of tragedy and Betty Gilpin's mother to be Nina adds a dose of tension to proceedings. The always great William Sadler does a lot with a little as a haunted cop and his last appearance is the one moment of this film that will stick with you. It's great seeing quality actors like this in genre pieces but I just wish this one was as good as the people in it. 

If you're a fan of the franchise you might get something from this but everyone else will just leave the cinema rolling their eyes at one cheap jump scare too many. It's always a shame when you go into a movie and you get EXACTLY what you expected.

2020 (Tele) Vision : 11 new shows to keep an eye out for

2020 is going to be full of excellent new TV shows it seems. The only problem will be seeing them. Only two are definitely going to be available over here on BBC. Some others may pop up on Sky Atlantic but everything will be there to watch online depending on your......definitions of legality. I do not judge.

Snowpiercer

Set in a future devastated by climate change, the remaining populace live aboard perpetually moving trains designed to prevent the cold killing everyone. Rich and poor alike survive onboard and tensions are rising. This tv reboot of the 2013 film has promise. Jennifer Connelly is the lead and she's always reliable.

Devs

A young computer engineer investigates a huge computer firm, believing them to be responsible for a tragedy she's suffered. This will be topical, taking shots at mega corporations and their shady practices. Alison Pill and the brilliant Nick Offerman are the head honcho's here.

Wanda Vision

The story of Scarlet Witch and Vision and what they got up to in their downtime from the Avengers. This Disney+ spin off from the movies has a lot of potential and looks like it will go down stranger avenues than the dull looking Winter Soldier TV show. Scarlet and Vision will be an interesting couple to say the least. 

The North Water (BBC)

A ship heads into icy waters to catch whales. Onboard are two disgraced men hoping to escape their past. Colin Farrell's first foray into TV in a long time looks like a good watch albeit a very very dark one if it sticks closely to the book. Jack O'Connell will no doubt bring his usual intensity too. Plus Stephen Graham is in it. Everything he touches is gold. 

High Fidelity

Rob owns a record store. Rob's a music snob. Rob is going through a "What does it all mean stage" and revisits past loves. Rob isn't John Cusack anymore though. Rob is now Zoë Kravitz. This reimagining of Nick Hornby's classic book is going to be great and it's big change is going to really swirl up the sexual politics of the original story.

Little Fires Everywhere

The Richardson's are a perfect family. On the surface. Everything changes when they rent a portion of their house to an unusual mother and daughter combo. Reese Wetherspoon's 2nd TV show looks like it wil be as interesting as her first Big Little Lies. Another look at the dark shit that lurks under the surface of suburbia. Kerry Washington will add another touch of class to this.

Brave New World

The future. You're born into your place in society and you can't do a thing about it. The masses are anaesthetised and content with their lot. Well not all of them. This adaption of Aldous Huxley's famous novel looks great. A prescient look at the way we're all headed and a solid cast including Alden Ehrenreich , Jessica Brown Findlay & Demi Moore should keep it afloat.

Y

Yorick is the last man alive. A disease has killed every male on earth and there's only him and his monkey (not a euphemism) left. The population is all women now and society has changed a lot. Some see Yorick as an enemy and others see him as a means to start again. Ireland's own Barry Keoghan is the lead here and i can't wait to see what he'll bring to the part.

Noughts & Crosses (BBC)

Imagine a world where Africa ruled the world before Europe and white people had been taken as slaves and not the other way around. This alternative history story is set in the now and things are a bit different. I can't wait to see the reaction to this one. Paterson Joseph, Stormzy & Ian Hart will bring plenty of goodness to this.

The Stand

This 2nd adaption of Stephen King's post apocalyptic thriller is going to be far superior to the shoddy and castrated 90's take. The survivors of a plague are inexplicably drawn to a destination where they'll have to take a side. With the Coronavirus on the rise this one might be very close to the bone. Whoopi Goldberg and a terrifying Alexander Skarsgård are on lead duties here.

Lovecraft Country

Two black men set out across country to find a family member. It's the 50's. It's the south. Jim Crow is in full effect but it's not only Ku Klux Klan members lurking in the darkness. Other, even scarier things are out there too. Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us) is behind this and it is going to be excellent, dark, horrifying but excellent. A literal look at America's monstrous side.

Huh

So this is what writer's block feels like?

11 films for you on TV this week

The Good Girl   Sat   25/1   TG4 @ 23.00

Justine is trapped in a dead end job in a crappy aul town and she's not enjoying life with her husband. Until she meets an unusual co-worker called Holden. Holden has....notions. This is the film that made people realise there was far more to Jennifer Aniston than haircuts and mega famous sitcoms. A heartfelt and emotional movie with a couple of fine supporting turns from the always reliable John C.Reilly and a babyfaced Jake Gyllenhaal.

Halal Daddy   Sat   25/1   RTE1 @ 23.15

In his small Sligo town Raghdan is trying to start a halal business and social differences, his love life and his Da are among the things making life difficult for him. This one is great craic, funny in the way only an Irish film can be and full of charming little touches about cultural confusion. Nikesh Patel leads a lovely cast that includes Deirdre O'Kane (hilarious) , Colm Meany, Sarah Bolger and Mark O'Halloran.

Isolation   Sun   26/1   Film4 @ 01.45

Dan's a farmer with financial problems. He rents space on his farm out to a bio-genetics company who've plans to increase livestock productivity and before long things get weird. Imagine Alien but instead of space think Wicklow and instead of Xenomorphs think Freisian cattle. No, wait, it's better than you think. Some genuine scares, some wicked tension and a couple of nice turns from Ruth Negga and John Lynch make it work.

Wonder   Sun   26/1   CH4 @ 16.25

Auggie Pullman is a young boy with a facial deformity that's kept him out of school all his life. Now it's his time to enter the system and while Auggie is curious, his mother is terrified for him. 4pm on a Sunday...yeah that's a perfect time to cry. This enchanting movie will shake the tears out of you but also lift you high. Jacob Tremblay is a decent lead and Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson & Izabela Vidovic do nice work as his adoring family.

The Fits   Mon   27/1   BBC2 @ 00.30

A young girl named Toni joins her Cincinnati gym with dreams of being a boxer but before long she becomes enthralled by a local dance troupe training alongside her. She joins them and then things take an odd turn. This 2015 drama is a strange dreamlike watch. It's low on plot but high on mystery. It takes a while but you'll be hooked. The cast is made up of new faces but Royalty Hightower as Toni does super work.

American Made   Mon   27/1   TG4 @ 21.30

The story of Barry Seal, pilot, cigar smuggler, CIA spook, drug runner contracted to the Medellin Cartel and eventually gun smuggler for the Contras. This Tom Cruise led action thriller is a highly entertaining watch despite the subject matter. One of those films that would be considered far fetched if it was fiction. Strong turns from Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright and Alejandro Edda all add to the fun.

Cherry Falls   Tues   28/1   The Horror Channel @ 23.00

A serial killer is targeting virgins in a small town. The only way to survive? Lose your virginity as fast as possible. Sounds crass doesn't it? It's far from it. A humorous, intelligent and subversive satire on modern horror that really works if you go with the concept. The late Brittany Murphy is very solid in the lead and gets quality support from Michael Biehn and Jay Mohr. Totally ignored on it's original release but worth a re-evaluation.

Hobo With A Shotgun   Wed   29/1   Syfy @ 22.00

A homeless man turns up to a new city and within moments realises it's a venal cesspit filled with the worst of humanity. He decides to clean things up with his 20 gauge death bringer. If you are any way squeamish or easily offended I beg you to avoid this like the plague. But if you like your comedy pitch black and with a massive side order of gore then this is for you. Rutger Hauer in the lead just rocks.

Solaris   Thur   30/1   Film4 @ 00.35

A man is sent on a mission into deep space to investigate strange happenings on a space station. An almost 3 hour long Russian subtitled sci-fi film from Andrei Tarkovsky isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but if you are willing to stick with it this is a very rewarding experience. It's a film that will scare you, make you think, reminisce about people from your past & generally do things to your head that most other films won't. Highly recommended.

Snowpiercer   Thur   30/1   Film4 @ 21.00

Climate change has destroyed the planet. The only people left are those living on a perpetually moving train that circles the globe. Rich and poor are onboard and tensions are rising. Bong Joon Ho's 2013 action thriller is a blistering watch. Class warfare, social commentary, brutal violence & a touch of the surreal all add up to a rather unique watch. Chris Evans leads a mighty cast including Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, Jamie Bell & Alison Pill.

Revolutionary Road   Thur   30/1   BBC4 @ 22.00

April and Frank are a very unhappily married couple in 1950's America. The social mores of the day force them to keep their frayed marriage a secret and we bear witness to the darker side of the American dream. A tough and quietly devastating adaption of a 1960's novel of the same name. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio reunite here and both give their all. This is as far from Titanic as you'll get though.

Just Mercy

January. Smack bang in the middle of awards season. All the big prestige films are lined up for release. All of them purposely created to win Oscars, Golden Globes, SAG's, Critic's Choice, Bafta's etc etc etc. Chock full of proper, intense thesping designed to get actors up to that podium, gripping them statues, pretending they never expected this to happen. Based on a true story, Just Mercy is one such film. But this time there's enough righteous anger behind it to make it worth while.

Monroeville, Alabama. 1987. A wood worker called Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx) is arrested for the murder of a woman and sent to death row. It's a creaky conviction, one based on lies and the testimony of a very unreliable witness. How was a trial even allowed to take place you ask? Well the victim was white and the "murderer" was black and Alabama is a hugely racist state. As lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) finds out when he opens a new practice to help poor people suffering in jail because they couldn't afford proper legal representation. What happens next made history.

Numerous times throughout Just Mercy, Harper Lee's seminal novel 'To Kill A Mockingbird' is mentioned and referenced. The people of Monroeville are proud of the fact the book was written in their little town and are quick to mention it to a black lawyer in an attempt to big up the town's civil rights history. His reaction says it all. The hypocrisy of the United States with regard to race issues distilled down to one withering look. It's a horrible moment but Michael B. Jordan's Bryan, stands tall, takes it on the chin with dignity and walks away. The kind of thing you'd imagine Atticus Finch doing and just like Gregory Peck's most famous role, Jordan plays his part with a quiet magnetism. Nothing showy, no grandstanding and you'll still pump your fist in the air at his wins and die a little inside at his losses. From doomed Wallace in The Wire, through his powerhouse turns in Creed and Creed 2 Jordan is after growing into a fantastic performer, natural as hell, someone you don't even notice acting. Just watch the scene where he visits Walter's family. Superb.

Unlike Jamie Foxx and Tim Blake Nelson. Both are fine but jesus they really go for it. Foxx, simmering quietly and Nelson going full panto as Ralph Myers, the witness who put McMillian in jail. Facial tics agogo, a lesser actor would have made this laughable but Nelson somehow pulls it back from the brink. Foxx does intense well but you never forget it's him you're looking at. Studied silences, explosions of anger, the way he moves, prison life having taken his spirit away. Everything prepared to a tee. Watching a master class in acting does tend to take you out of the film a little bit.

His anger though is a justifiable one, having seen his own father go through being jailed for a crime he didn't commit and that's what this film is really about. America's treatment of African Americans, the constant racial injustice they face, the prison-industrial complex built on their backs.  The dehumanising conditions prisoners live in. The way their lives end. Halfway through the film Bryan witnesses an execution and afterwards says it was the most horrifying thing he's ever seen. He's not wrong and we get to bear witness to it from start to finish. It's not graphic but it's traumatic. In a modern world and a civilised age there's no room for this brand of government issue brutality. 

Just Mercy is in cinemas now. It's a fine movie. An old story but a very necessary one. Keep watching as the credits roll too. 

Nable

Phlegm (x) snot + cough = me

Bad Boys For Life

1995. Bad Boys comes out. It's fun, forgettable fluff full of Michael Bay's usual schtick. 2003. Bad Boys 2 appears after an 8 year hiatus and it's insane grand guignol excesses take everyone by surprise. 2020. Bad Boys For Life finally appears after years in development. Everyone expects a dead duck. Nothing expects it to be the best film of the franchise. It seems all you have to do to make a movie series better is get shot of the usual director. Huh.

Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowry (Will Smith). Bad Boys For Life. Literally. Partners against crime for 25 years. A bond closer than brotherhood. They ride together, they die together. Well, until Marcus becomes a grandad and he wants out. Then a shocking attack drags him back in and himself and Mike find themselves up against a foe with a vendetta against Miami law enforcement. A foe that's closer to them that they think.

"You fucked a married witch!" The entire cinema burst out laughing at this line earlier. Just one of many crude, profane, hilarious moments scattered throughout Bad Boys For Life that made me happy to be spending time with Marcus and Mike again. Michael Bay may have created the franchise and riddled it with his trademark tics but it was this pairing that made it. Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are still great together, Smith taming down Lawrence's tendencies towards extreme silliness and Lawrence knocking the edges off Smith's latter day seriousness Chalk and cheese, forever bouncing off each other and bickering like a couple who been married way too long. In between the bouts of chaos and bloodshed the film slows down and really gets into the chemistry between them. They ain't boys anymore, they are aging men and their interplay with regards to this gives the film a touch of pathos that no-one expected to see. Also, how rare is it to see two men, best friends, tell each other that they sincerely love each other and not be followed by a joke. Little moments like this feel refreshing and it's easy tell Michael Bay isn't steering the ship anymore.

His horrible, rapid fire editing and hard to follow action style is missing too and co-directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah bring a welcome clarity to proceedings with gunfights and car chases shot in long sweeping takes. Imagine it, a Bad Boys film where you can actually make out what's happening and who's who and where's where. It's not a total change of style of course, the slo-mo is still slightly overused and the trademark low angle hero shots are still there but that all adds to the sense of overblown fun. Speaking of overblown, the climax is totally over the top. All hell breaks loose and i mean that literally. You'll half expect to see Willy Shakespeare's name in the closing credits. In a series of films renowned for it's bonkers action setpieces this feels like a step too far in silliness. The newer faces on show here (Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez) don't make much of an impact either but one gets the sense this introduction is more of an place setter for future installments than anything else.

One of my favourite things about this, and yes, im as surprised as you are that this was so entertaining, were all the returning faces from the past films. Joe Pantoliano, as enjoyable as always as Captain Howard. Theresa Randle, Marcus's wife and perhaps the only person Mike is afraid of (the spa scene is priceless) and even Reggie, the poor bastard who gets the doorway interrogation of a lifetime in Bad Boys 2 pops up in a cameo. Michael Bay even makes an appearance but thankfully it's only a fleeting one. It's nice to see the film not forgetting it's past while heading in a new and (slightly) more considered direction. I genuinely hope we get Bad Boys 4 ever next. And I hope it's without the hair dye and with the glasses.

In cinemas everywhere now. A very entertaining antidote to the seriousness of award season movies.

Joy

This. This is bliss.

Waves

What a diff'rence a day made
Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain
My yesterday was blue, dear
Today I'm part of you, dear
My lonely nights are through, dear
Since you said you were mine

Ella Fitzgerald knew what time it is.

Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr) lives in Florida. He's handsome, popular, a good student and an excellent athlete. His family are well off and he has a beautiful girl, Alexis (Alexa Demie) on his arm. College is approaching and his father Ronald (Sterling K.Brown) only wants what's best for him. Life is good and the whole world is there for the plucking. Then everything goes wrong and caught in the storm is his younger sister Emily (Taylor Russell). Will she cope where her brother couldn't?

Jesus. Waves is the story of the Williams family and it's a story of two halves. Both equally compelling but that first half is one of the most intense hours you'll see in a cinema this year. A story of toxic masculinity that while a bit too melodramatic at times will pin you to your seat until it's inevitable climax. It's a pulsating, stressful, traumatic and overwhelming look at the pressures of teenage life and the issues that can arise when a person is pushed too hard. Everything about it is designed to cause viewer anxiety, the constant pounding soundtrack (from Trent Reznor no less), the intense visuals, the nonstop buildup of pressure until.....the zoom in, the screen becomes smaller, 16:9 becomes 4:3, the Williams' world becomes claustrophobic and suffocating before a switch to Cinemascope offers a feeling of freedom, a future of hope. Trey Edward Shult is a director with a hell of an eye and while his visuals do calm down in the second half of the movie, it's no less beautiful.

It's here the film becomes softer, more intimate and yeah, the buzz of the first half goes but Emily's story is no less compelling and it still manages to surprise when it goes down a couple of very unexpected roads. Some people may find Waves unfocused and true, it's not a film with any particular target but it's a rare watch that gets you in the gut as well as the head. It's African American cinema at it's best, at times feeling like a companion piece to 2016's Moonlight, sharing that film's fascination with water and peoples relationship to it. The go-to place to wash away your problems.

Every performance here is pitch perfect. Kelvin Harrison Jr superb as a young man who's world is thrown into disarray by two life changing events, rage and upset competing behind his eyes. Taylor Russell as Emily is does wonders in a part that initially seems one note but one that blooms as the story unfolds. Sterling K. Brown as their father Ronald is excellent. A man forced to excel due to the shade of his skin and his anger over how he's lived his life and his shame over how he lets that anger colour his relationships with those he loves. Brown's an actor who can do no wrong lately and he continues his run here. He's one of those who can say as much with a disappointed stare as he can with a thousand words. Of course this being an A24 production Lucas Hedges pops up too. Hedges, the poster boy for indie cinema is solid as always but here he's too old for the part he plays and his inclusion feels like the film's one error.  His manatee excitement is fun though. One of the very few glimmers of joy on display here. Waves isn't a film that will entertain you but you will be stuck to it no less.

Waves is out in selected cinemas this week. It's rare a film like this gets a showing outside of the artier places in Dublin and Galway so you should jump at the chance to see it. 

Bombshell

Remember the good old days when an actor was portraying a real life figure and they just rocked up and played the part. No need for cutting edge prosthetics to create a facsimile of the person, they just did what they did best and us, the audience never questioned them at all. The magic of film was all we needed. No one cared if Bruce Davison didn't look a bit like JFK or Angela Bassett wasn't the spit of Tina Turner or Ben Kingsley wasn't Gandhi.........ok no, that last one was pretty uncanny. I miss those days. Now we get perfect recreations and it's kinda offputting instead of amazing.

2016. New York City. The Fox news headquarters. Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) is the boss and he's a bastard who treats the women beneath him like meat there to be ogled and hounded. His actions have effected dozens, if not hundreds of women. Among them Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), the co-host of Fox & Friends who's had enough and wants payback; Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), the newscaster who took on Trump and who has history with Ailes and Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie playing a composite of victims of Ailes), the up and coming star with her eyes on a tv spot. What happened to them and how they dealt with it shook the news industry to it's very core.

Bombshell is a fine film, and a very important one too being one of the first to directly deal with the fallout from the #MeToo movement. It makes no bones about who's to blame (rich, white, old, male) but at same time doesn't make saints of it's leading ladies. It's a stinging indictment of the way society turns women into commodities but it's also quick to point it's finger at people who look after number one first. Sadly it's good work is partly undone by it's need to recreate it's real life leads to a tee, a move that drags you out of the film instead of hooking you in. Instead of listening to and empathising with Megyn and Gretchen you'll find yourself looking at them and wondering at the make up effects on display. It's weird, almost like the uncanny valley effect you get with CGI recreations of humans and feels like showing off on the part of director Jay Roach, in a look what we can do kind of way. Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it.

Effects aside it's a very unsettling look into a toxic culture that has permeated every strata of industry but with TV it has been openly on display and tolerated by all of us. It's the kind of watch that will make you feel complicit, make you take notice the next time you watch the news or a chatshow. The way women on tv, talk, move, dress, everything carefully calibrated to sell news with sex appeal. It's about time people kicked back against the pricks to quote Johnny Cash. It's about time we realised just how hard life can be for the women around us. The flashback to Rudi Bakhtiar second guessing her every word in a conversation with her boss that takes a horrible turn. The skin crawling interview Kayla has with Ailes. The abuse Gretchen gets when she dares go on tv without her face on. The truth of Megyn's background with her boss. Stuff that women, no matter how big or little their job is have had to face from day dot.

Theron's the lead and she does mighty work but it's Robbie's Kayla that will stick in your mind. The fresh faced ingénue who rapidly realises how scummy her boss is. A phone call from her late in the movie is a heartbreaker. The true effect of the abuse of power and the aftermath of a cheap thrill. It's a pity Ailes didn't live to see this film released but I've a feeling a fucker like him would only scoff at the devastation he created. Lithgow's portrayal of him is very disquieting. Old, obese, decrepit, but still capable of shredding with a word or a look.What could have been pantomime becomes recognisably human and that's even more disturbing as a result. Disturbed. That's how you should feel when you leave the cinema after this. It's not a fun watch but it's a necessary one. If you can get past the prosthetics that is.

Out now everywhere.

Hasta la vista baby

A Tipperary eejit in Barcelona.

I hope they do good ham sandwiches over here.

I mean el sandwicho jamon.

Jaysus I'm fluent.

A perfect pairing of sound & vision - Wheels On Meals

Yup, the title is correct before you ask. The film's production company Golden Harvest had just released two flops in a row whose titles began with M (Megaforce and Ménage à Trois) and being Chinese and superstitious they insisted that the title be changed from Meals On Wheels. Hence Wheels On Meals.

Thomas (Jackie Chan) and his cousin David (Yuen Biao) have decided to leave Hong Kong and chance their arms selling food in Barcelona. They both fall for the same woman and when she's kidnapped they head out to rescue her with the help of a private eye called Moby (Sammo Hung). From a big castle filled with bad guys of course. One of the baddies is Benny Urquidez. Oh shit.

No one watches a Jackie Chan film for the plot. They watch them for what happens next.

This is legitimately one of the best scraps ever filmed. Jackie Chan vs Benny "The Jet" Urquidez (you'll know him as the assassin Martin Blank kills with a pen in Grosse Point Blank). There's nothing fancy here, nothing flashy (except for that candle quenching kick at 1.12 Good jesus!) just two martial artists at the height of their profession going at it. America vs China. Seersucker vs lycra. The skill though. Look at that kick from Jackie at 3.59. There's stuff in here that breaks the laws of physics. The music doesn't kick in until 2.02 but when it does it's glorious 80's cheesiness takes the edges off the brutality displayed. Later releases of the film swap out this music and it takes from the fun of the scene massively.  

5 minutes of joy.

Previous pairings

The Office (UK)
Do The Right Thing
Se7en
Mad Men
The Colour Of Money
Rules Of Attraction

Jackass II

Game Of Thrones 

Apocalypse Now

Blade

Big
Miller's Crossing

The Blues Brothers

Straight Outta Compton

The Princess Bride

American Honey

Snake In The Eagle's Shadow

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

The Untouchables

Airplane!

Dazed And Confused  

Kickboxer                                  

Grosse Point Blank

Mean Streets

Watership Down

Casablanca

Zodiac

Jackie Brown
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Deliverance
The Omen
Copland
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
The Mission

Before Sunset

Carlito's Way
A Knight's Tale
Platoon
Before Sunrise
Rushmore
An American Werewolf In London
Dazed And Confused
Boogie Nights
Raging Bull
Almost Famous
Once Upon A Time In The West
Goodfellas

Last Of The Mohicans

1917

There's a moment near the end of 1917 where a young man is floating down a river while gripping a log to stay above the water. Gradually the water around him fills with the fallen leaves of the cherry blossom trees that line the bank. It's almost serene but that serenity is rapidly broken when leaves are replaced with rotting, shattered corpses clogging up the flow. It's 1917 in a nutshell. A beautifully shot look at horror.

France. April 1917. The German are planning a trap and the British army is about to walk right into it. Communication lines have been cut and in an effort to stop 1600 men running to certain death two young soldiers by the names of Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake ( Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a message to deliver. One that involves crossing no man's land. The Germans have retreated they are told, there's little to worry about. So why were they given grenades?

1917 is a fantastic achievement. A war movie that doesn't say anything new but one that tells it's story in one continuous shot from beginning to end. Ok it doesn't really and there's one big cheat but the effect is creates is mesmerising. Roger Deakins deserves every bit of awards praise for this one. Mostly shot in broad daylight the roving camera doesn't hide anything from us, it never cuts away from the horror and atrocity of war and most importantly it lets us experience everything Schofield and Blake are going through. We, the audience are a constant companion and it's the kind of thing that you make you very appreciative of being alive now instead of then. It's a brilliant stylistic decision and it makes you very aware of the toll war takes on people and place. Just take note of the changing landscapes at the film moves forward. Something that wouldn't be as noticeable with normal cutting and editing. Bucolic meadows become claustrophobic trenches before devolving into nightmarish, surrealistic battlezones, grass replaced with rat eaten corpses and craters filled with blood and mud. It's appalling to see. War is truly hell. 

Schofield and Blake being front and centre shows us what war does to the body and mind too. The former, a veteran of the Somme carries a haunted look throughout the movie, the latter a baby faced corporal with a personal link to the mission at hand. Seeing them breaking down physically and psychologically is genuinely upsetting. MacKay and Chapman are both superb in their parts, traumatised but not yet turned robotic by what they've seen. They're thinly sketched but we can glean just enough about them to understand them and the interplay between them reminds us that for all it's spectacle and scope that this is a human story. A natter about cherry varieties, a wanking joke, a loveheart carved on a wall acknowledging the fact that the German war machine was made up of young men exactly like our two. It's the slivers of humanity drip fed to us by Mendes that stop the film from bludgeoning us totally. A woodland folk song, a gurgling baba and her forever grateful protector, a tearful thank you. Small moments that show us that war will never totally erase the human condition. 

It's these small moments and a couple of stunning performances from the leads that keep the film grounded when it's technical wonders threaten to overshadow the story. The look on Schofield's face as he races across a battleground, chaos breaking out behind him but it's his determined expression you'll be homed in on. The aftermath of a plane crash when the need to be decent backfires. A frantic chase through a bombed out village that relaxes into a weird type of peace after a chiaroscuro ordeal. At times you get the sense director Sam Mendes is torn between telling a more intimate story (one based on his grandfather's real war experiences btw) and letting loose with a big box of visual and pyrotechnical tricks. Thankfully the human side of the story wins out.

1917 is out in cinemas now. Go see it soon while it's still on the big screens. It's a watch that will leave you rattled and thankful.

Oh and keep an eye out for a certain Young Offender.