See How They Run (2022)

See How They Run is a murder mystery that centres around the long running Agatha Christie stage show The Mouse Trap. The plot sees Inspector Stoppard and Constable Stalker played by Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan try and find out who killed Leo Kopernick played by Adrien Brody whilst dealing with Stoppard’s personal turmoil. 

The whole film follows the well trodden whodunnit format so the film has to work in other ways to make it a success and Tom George manages it. The film works primarily because of Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan. Rockwell is playing a down on his luck constable and it's a very good performance from Rockwell who can always be relied on to give a good performance. Ronan in particular is very funny. I have only really seen her play very serious straight roles so for her to do something like this and be good as well is not what I was expecting.

The supporting cast are all very good and it's always nice as a brit to see familiar faces on the big screen. I thought that Ruth Wilson, Reece Shearsmith, Charlie Cooper, David Oyelowo all gave the sort of performances that they wouldn't normally give but because of the setting it means that they can have fun and help create a great atmosphere. There wasn't a single person that was miscast and that's  a rare thing to have in a movie.

I didn't guess who the one that did it and that's because I didn't really spend too much time trying to work things out. I think that a good story moves along and if you are engaged with what is happening then you don't have time to put things together or at least I think that's the case. I wasn't expecting much from this film because it's more light-hearted than what I am used to watching at the cinema. It’s appropriate that an Agatha Christie play is in the backdrop of this film because with the all star cast and the whodunnit plot, its very much like a Poirot story and whilst this is not on the same level as a Poirot story, it's a lot of fun and an unexpected highlight of the year.

Orphan: First Kill (2022)

I didn't see the first Orphan film until just before seeing this sequel even though I was aware of the twist, I still thought it worked quite well. Whether a film needs a sequel especially when 13 years have passed and horror has moved along a lot since then. Well this film proves that it can be achieved even if its slightly underwhelming. The film sees Isabelle Fuhrman return as Leena with Julia Stiles playing Tricia and Rossif Sutherland playing Allen.

The twist of the first film is that Esther is older than she looks. The thing is that with this being a prequel it means that she has to be even young whilst having grown up in real life which means there are some creative uses to get around the fact that it's not Isabelle Fuhrman. There are some shots where it's clear that its a body double and not Fuhrman. There are other instances where they have used creative angles to help with the illusion but it's a mixed end result.

The film does actually get good around the hour mark when we learn that the real Esther died years earlier and Tricia uses Leena to help continue the deceit and I will admit that I thought this was a creative if convoluted plot twist. It becomes an interesting film but I did find the final 10-15 minutes to be a bit of a letdown because it's clear they didn't quite know how to wrap things up whilst ensuring that Leena makes it to the end of the film so the events of the first film can happen.

Orphan: First Kill is an odd film. It isn't terrible enough to be funny or boring and it's not a great horror film. I think that the fact that it happened so long after the first film hurt it but I think that its worth your time cause there is an interesting 40 minutes or so. It is an underwhelming film but I have seen worse horror films.

Nope (2022)

Being a fan of Jordan Peele meant I was going to see Nope but to try and explain what the film is about is quite tricky. The closest I can manage is that OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) have a ranch when they discover that an alien spaceship or something is above them in the clouds.

I have always been a fan of Kaluuya since I first saw him in an episode of Black Mirror and in Get Out he was amazing. In this there is a hint of just being miserable but given what is happening you can understand why OJ is not exactly a barrel of laughs. I did find Emerald annoying at first but by the second half of the film I thought she had developed into someone who helped to the success of the film instead of being a distraction. She has some smart ideas including letting a balloon rise so it can get the aliens' attention and using a wishing well’s flash to get the attention as well. Normally horror films make people come across as stupid but Peele writes better than that. 

There is a running theme about the love of cinema. There is a thing about OJ and Emerald being the descendants of the rider of a horse on some footage from the dawn of cinema and the second half of the film sees the cinematographer that we meet at the beginning of the film and brings an old style camera to try and capture what is in the clouds. It’s a great moment and the second half of the film is by far the stronger half because it's when things start happening. 

The effects of the alien ship both inside and out are very good. It doesn't look like your typical spaceship and it could only come from someone who didn't want the alien spaceships to look cliched or like anything we had ever seen before. From a cinematography point of view this film is stunning. Pretty much every shot outside is great and the isolated setting helps create the atmosphere. I didn't think it was possible to make brown dust and dirt look amazing but Hoyte Van Hoytema manages it. I really like this film but I think it's largely down to the central performances from Kaluuya, Palmer and Yeun who all help maintain the mystery even if it's unclear really what's happening. I would like to have seen more from Yeun but what we got was I don't think it's the best Jordan Peele but he manages to make confusing stuff seem interesting and entertaining. He doesn't do stupid horror, he does horror films that have an idea about them and is creative with what he does.