The Zone of Interest (2023)

The Zone of Interest was a film that I was looking forward to since I heard about it. The film follows a family that are living next door to Auschwitz. It's a simple premise that doesnt feel it needs to add emotional moments or anything melodramatic to emotional manipulate you. The film doesn't have any names I recognise except for Sandra Hüller who I recently saw in 'Anatomy of a Fall' and she continues to impress me. She plays someone who is almost oblivious to what's going on beyond the wall and is more concerned about making her house as lovely as possible. The film spends a great of time making her seem like she is a loving housewife but there are moments where the mask slips and she is horrible to her servant. 

The interesting take is that we never see inside Auschwitz. However it is present in a lot of scenes because we hear gunfire and then we hear screams and in a few scenes we see smoke billowing from the chimneys. This is far more effective than if we had seen inside there. This doesn't make it less harrowing and the grimness was pitched just right. 

There are a couple of things that don't quite make sense to me. The first being the infrared shots with the young girl. I'm not sure what the point of this portion was but it wasn't something that made the film bad or poorer. The other part that didn't make sense was the part when Rudolf is looking into the darkness and then the film moves forward in time to a bunch of cleaners at the Auscheitz Museum for a prolonged period before the film returns to Rudolph and then the film ends.

The directing is really good in this film. There aren't any close ups and we see things from a distance. There aren't any shaky cam shots at any point which is quite refreshing. There is a scene where Rudolf is fishing in the lake and he is standing there when the water changes colour slightly and he pulls out a bone and if this had been a different type of film we would have had a close up and dramatic music but the film lets horrors like this happen and come across in its own way. 

I really liked this film despite the grim setting. The acting was brilliant and Sandra Hüller continues to show what a good actress she is. The film is currently my film of the year.

Bob Marley: One Love (2024)

I will admit that I didn’t know too much about Bob Marley and after sitting through this movie, I still don’t think I know Bob Marley. The film follows Bob Marley as he goes from Jamaica to London, all round Europe before arriving at the One Love music show. 

There are two types of biopics, there are those like Rocketman which you feel are giving you a warts and all account of the life of in this film Elton John. It doesn’t try and paint him to be a nice person but a flawed person and then there are those that don’t really do this and paint either a false picture or a vague one. This film is the latter. I think I wanted something a bit more substantial than what we got. The film felt too rushed and could have easily benefited from an extra 30-40 minutes.

The performances are what makes this a four star film for me. Kingsley Ben-Adir gives a superb performance as Bob Marley. He makes the story come alive and made me actually made me care about someone that I don’t really know much about. Lashana Lynch is equally as good as Rita and the heart of the story I think is the dynamic between the two of them. 

Despite my issues with the overall story this is definitely a film that should be seen. It might help if you know a bit about Bob Marley but the performances alone are enough to make this worth watching. Just not sure that it’s worth going to the cinema for.

The Iron Claw (2023)

There aren’t that many times when I go into a film based on real people or events and are familiar with what is going to happen. Senna (2010) was probably the only other time I can remember but as a wresting fan (mainly of 80’s and 90’s stuff), I knew about the Von Erich’s and how the story of this wrestling family is one of tragedy.  The story tells of the Von Erich’s who started out in Texas and Fritz Von Erich’s attempt to achieve his dream of having the NWA World Title in the Von Erich family.

The plot shows each brother and what happens to each of them. David who appears to be the most talented brother dies of enteritis in Japan. Kerry initially suffers disappointment after not being about to compete at the 1980 Olympic Games before losing his foot in a motorcycle accident and to compound the sad turn of events, he ends up taking his own life after leaving the WWF (now WWE). Mike is the one brother who doesn’t seem to want to peruse a career in sport and seems happy enough to become a musician but ends up in the ring and after injuring his shoulder ends up in a toxic shock induced coma and wakes up with brain damage. It’s not very long before tragically he takes his own life. It’s a this point that the viewer can be left with no doubt the emotional toll this ‘fake’ sport can take on the body and family.Zac Efron continues to do a good job in shaking off the squeaky clean persona he earnt from his high school musical days. He clearly put in the effort because he looks like a wrestler. He manages to do a good job of carrying a lot of the emotional weight of this film and one of the things I liked about this film was the dynamic between Kevin and his dad Fritz. 

The lack of willingness to help from Fritz is one of the things that the film gets right about the real Von Erich family, Fritz seemed like he was a wrestling promoter first and father last. When Kerry phones Kevin in an cry for help, Fritz seems unwilling to help instead putting the only on Kevin to be the one who saves the day. Jeremy Allen White was very good as Kerry. White seems to be making the most of his new found fame after impressing people in ‘The Bear’ and although he is one of the more familiar names, he doesn't try to outshine Efron and his performance is restrained. Holt McCallany is very good as Fritz and comes close at times to stealing the show. Even though he is so distant from his own children it is very hard to hate Fritz and that is down to McCallany. Lily James does well with what is a very limited role as Pam but she is always dependable. Maura Tierney puts in another good performance as Doris who has some great scenes and deals with the sad scenes is a heartbreaking manner.

I had high expectations with this film because even in 2024, wrestling is still thought of as this fake sport but in reality out of the four brothers, only one is still alive and made it past 35. (Kerry was 33, David was 25 and Mike was 23). This film is important to show non-wrestling fans that his sport does have a cost as high as any other sport and like the 2008 movie ‘The Wrestler’ shows the dark underbelly of the sport. Definitely worth watching even if you don’t watch wrestling.

Argylle (2024)

Argylle was the first big film that I wanted to see at the cinema in 2024 and despite some of the negative reviews that I had heard about, I actually enjoyed this. The film follows Elly who is an author who is using plot point from moments in her life even though at the beginning she doesn’t remember them. Over the course of the movie we learn what is going on; and how people close to her are responsible for the secret that Elly has been unknowingly suppressing.

I thought that Bryce Dallas Howard was very likeable as Elly. Even when the twist is revealed and we learn that she is in fact a spy I still enjoyed where the film was going. I did think that the whole skating on oil and shooting people did seem a bit over the top but the film at this point was a bit over the top. I like Sam Rockwell in pretty much anything I have seen him in but I have to admit that I thought he was miscast in this and was probably the weakest part of the film and I take zero pride in writing that. He gives it a good go but I think he just doesn’t pull of a tough spy.

Henry Cavill was perfectly cast as Argylle and plays the role perfectly because it’s clearly suppose to be a parody of Bond but manages to make it seem distinct enough and whilst I wouldn’t go so far as to say I would pay or want to see a full length movie with him its still a very good performance from the guy once tipped to play Bond in 2006. Dua Lipa was cast partly I suspect because she’s attractive and popular with the target audience and whilst she is attractive she cannot act at all. It’s like what an acting performance would be like if Matthew Vaughn asked AI to come up with a performance. Thankfully she is in only the first 5 minutes or so. As is John Cena but I think John Cena is a good actor (generally) so it would have been nice to see more of him.

The performances of Samuel L Jackson and Bryan Cranston were really good and Cranston in particular seemed to be having fun as the baddie and seemed to show us how good a villain he could have been in the 2012 Total Recall remake had he been allowed. 

Argylle is a better film than most people are giving it credit for. It’s a fun film that a good plot, some good performances and the film never outstayed its welcome. One of my bugbears about modern films isn’t that they usually could lose anything between 15-45 minutes depending on the film but Argylle is a the rare example of being the right length. One of the better Matthew Vaughn films and maybe even better than Kingsman because at least the laddish moments that blighted that film were missing from this movie.

Poor Things (2023)

I hadn't seen a Yorgos Lanthimos film until just a few days ago when I saw 'The Favourite' and having liked that film I thought I would give this film a go and I am glad that I did. The film is very strange but I suppose that was the point but I think that the strangeness was pitched just right as it didn't seem to strange for the sake it of but because it was part of the world that Lanthimos was creating. Just the idea of taking the brain of a baby and planting it in a grown woman is something that comes from a creative (if slightly weird) mind.

There was a sense of Wes Anderson throughout this film from the way the camera pans from side to side to how the places that Bella and Duncan visit. I would have been perfectly happy to spend the entire film on the cruise ship because outside looked beautiful and there was something lovely about the interior. Emma Stone is really good as Bella. When she is trying to learn things as she goes along she manages to make Bella comes across as a robot but also a child that gets smarter everyday. Mark Ruffalo gives probably one of his best performances since 'Dark Waters' and cones dangerously close to stealing the film as Duncan. Willem Dafoe is very likeable as God and even when he has clearly crossed the ethical line, he is still a likeable character and that is down to how Dafoe plays him. Despite getting a raw deal character wise, Ramy Youssef is very good as Max. Although after a while I did find myself questioning his intelligence when he still waits for Bella even though he knows what she has been up to.

Despite this being a very strange film and probably one of the strangest I have seen for sometime, it a superb movie. Emma Stone carries the whole thing and is supporting by some strong performances but make no mistake, this is an Emma Stone film and an early contender for film of the year for me.

One Life (2023)

I kind of knew the story of Nicholas Winton but only what was shown on 'That's Life'. The remarkable story was a mystery to me and over the course of the nearly 2 hours was something that I found totally mesmerising. Telling the story of how over 600 children were sent to the UK fleeing the Nazi's is something that could easily have become shmaltzy and sentimental but credit to the writing which was unfussy and just let the story move along at the pace that was right for this type of story.

Anthony Hopkins is amazing in this as the elder Nicholas Winton and the scene towards the end where he meets the adult version of the children he helped saved did get me teary eye. Johnny Flynn is also very good as the younger Nicholas Winton but has to do most of the heavy lifting plot wise. Helena Bonham Carter brings the sort of warmth to her performance that I remember in 'The King's Speech' and like that film this is a more stand there and be supportive which might be a bit unfair but it doesn't change the fact that she gives a stunning performance.

I really enjoyed this film and as the first cinema experience of 2024, I am glad to say that this the year has started off in great fashion. Not sure it will be everyones cup of tea but I enjoyed it from start to finish.

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Godzilla Minus One is perhaps the final time I will go to the cinema in 2023 and I couldn't end the year on a better note. It's been six years since Shin Godzilla came out and this film seems to have come out of nowhere but is easily in my top ten of the year. Set at the tail end of the second world war, kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima pretends their is a fault with his plane and at that moment Godzilla strikes, the rest of the story sees Shikishima get his courage back to take on Godzilla with a new romance with Noriko and a baby girl that Noriko 'found'.

The main difference between Toho Godzilla films and Hollywood Godzilla films is that Toho is more about the humans and the effect that Godzilla has on them whereas Hollywood is about the destruction of places which isn't a bad thing but its nice to have different types of Godzilla films. Sometimes the human aspect of a Godzilla film hasn't always been the best. In the case of this film it is what makes it one of the best non-Hollywood Godzilla films for quite sometime. I have a great fondness for Shin Godzilla but this was a huge step up. I don't know if its because the setting was unusual for Godzilla films in that its set in the past but it worked to create a fresh feeling to the franchise.

Godzilla himself apparently only appears on screen for 11 minutes but its used effectively and due to the fact that the human story was interesting I found myself not being that fussed that we weren't getting enough Godzilla. I know this might be something other people disagree with me on but its a common complaint in Godzilla films but I think that the balance was just right in this. The Godzilla scenes were really well done and we have come a long way since the early days of the franchise and seeing Godzilla regenerate when a part of his face melted was really cool to see and even though we know that Godzilla never really dies they do end it in a way that I found satisfying even if Noriko's sudden return was a bit of a silly inclusion. 

I thought it was funny that one of the trailers that played before the film was Godzilla x Kong which looks tonally and thematically different to Godzilla Minus One and I have a gut feeling that GXK wont be as good as this film. Hopefully we get another Toho Godzilla soon and not in six years.