November Review Roundup
After Sun – In the mid 90s, Single father, Calum (Paul Mescal), takes his daughter, Sophie (Frankie Corio), on a holiday to Turkey where joy is shared and deep, personal wounds begin to surface. Charlotte Wells’ directorial debut is nothing short of astonishing. From its opening, Well’s creates an air of both tenderness and mystery around the film. There is a duality that is present here, an idea that is cleverly shown in the cinematography, as the camera is positioned to depict two different realities, either through door frames or reflections. This duality is most accentuated by the wonderful Mescal, whose naturalistic performance brings realism and nuance to this story of a man’s struggling mental state. Corio is also staggeringly excellent here, with the two stars coming together to provide a richly authentic father and daughter dynamic. The performances, along with Well’s script and brilliant direction, all weave together with such subtlety, that when the final act comes you are hit with a wave of emotional profundity that very few films can achieve. While this is a film about duality, secrets and reflection, it flows like a dream and one that will remain with you for days after.
Score: 10/10
Living – Mr Williams (Bill Nighy) has spent the last thirty years of his life procrastinating in his office chair. Every day he goes through the motions, leaving no impact on those around him. However, Mr Williams is soon forced to face his shortcomings and his legacy once he is given the diagnosis that he has six months left to live. Director, Oliver Hermanus, and writer, Kazuo Ishiguro, made the bold decision to remake one of cinema’s all-time classics, Ikiru. However, their efforts have paid off as, Living, is a beautifully constructed adaptation that acts as an excellent companion to its original counterpart. While the structure and scenarios are consistent with the original film, Hermanus and crew have made this story feel fresh enough to stand on its own. From the gorgeous visuals, tender score and transporting the film to a new English setting, it never feels as though Hermanus’ take is redundant. Bill Nighy gives the performance of his career as Mr Williams, a man so lost as how to even exist. The emotional frailty Nighy gives to the role feels genuinely heart-breaking, while the interactions he has with the likes of, Sutherland (Tom Burke), and especially, Margaret (Aimee Lou Wood), reveal a man so desperate for some form of human connection. There is a real soul to this film, one which captures the wonder in life’s little victories and the importance of human connection. Thematically and cinematically, Hermanus has constructed a picture with timeless quality.
Score: 9/10
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back in this follow up to 2019’s hit, Knives Out. In the midst of lockdown, Benoit finds himself in desperate need of a case to tantalise his mind. The perfect opportunity soon arises when billionaire, Miles Bron (Edward Norton), invites Benoit and a number of his closest friends, to his private island in order to solve his own murder. Glass Onion is, quite simply, the best comedy of 2022. Johnson’s character writing is effectively silly, with each of the ensemble cast brining their own ridiculous flare to the screen. Craig takes this ridiculousness and dials it up to eleven, with his preposterous accent and manic mannerisms being a highlight of the whole picture. Kate Hudson and Edward Norton are standouts too, with a particular dinner gag and a comment about sweatshops being true laugh out loud moments. Johnson’s film goes along swiftly with an up-tempo pace, aided by some punchy editing; however, the pace does get halted with some flashbacks around the third act. Nevertheless, Glass Onion is a blast from start to finish and a sequel that stands toe to toe with its predecessor.
Score: 8/10
Watcher – Soon after Julia (Maika Monroe) and Francis (Karl Glusman) move to Bucharest for Francis’ new job, Julia discovers one of their neighbours is constantly watching her. Voyeurisms identity in film has always been intrinsically linked with horror and thrillers, dating back to the 1950s with Rear Window and Peeping Tom. Watcher adds to this lineage as a creepy and atmospheric stalker film that plays with the voyeuristic power dynamics. Indeed, much of the film’s strengths come from the psychological impact of such an act on its victim, while also asking who is truly watching who? However, director Chloe Okuno’s film is, most centrally, a story about alienation and the loneliness that stems from being uprooted from your home. Chloe captures this feeling perfectly in the wide, empty shots that shrink Julia in the frame and one dinner scene in particular where language becomes an alienating force. While Watcher may suffer from a lack of narrative surprises, overall, it is an effective exploration of the isolated soul and a chilling throwback to thrillers of old.
Score 8/10
The Menu – Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and his partner, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), travel to a private island where the prestigious, Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), prepares an extravagant and deadly set of courses for his entitled party. The Menu is an enjoyable dark comedy, spearheaded by the delightfully devious Ralph Fiennes. While its comic critique on the super-rich is rather surface level - basically boiling down to, rich people are spoiled and ungrateful – the conversation it raises about art and how we underappreciate creatives makes for the more fascinating critique. Indeed, Slowik’s disdain for his customers lack of understanding and unrefined palettes leads to clever parallels of an artist’s infuriation of misinterpretation or disregard of their intended meaning. At times, The Menu’s writing can be quite heavy-handed and some of its “shocking” moments are rather unsurprising. Nevertheless, with a trim runtime and some good laughs throughout, The Menu zips along quite nicely; it is just missing a couple of ingredients to make this a truly divine dish.
Score: 7/10
The Wonder – Soon after the Irish potato famine, an English Nurse, Lib (Florence Pugh), is tasked to watch over a girl, Anna (Kíla Lord Cassidy), who miraculously has not eaten in four months. The Wonder is a solid slow burn, with a curious mystery at its core that keeps you invested until its end. From its jarring opening shot of a house in a modern-day studio lot, director Sebastián Lelio and co-writer, Alice Birch, ask us what it means to believe in stories and how much we want such fables to be true. Conflicts of interpretation are embodied with the other staff members ordered to watch Anna, who want to believe that this is a sign of God or a new step in human evolution. Florence Pugh is, by no surprise, fantastic in the lead role and the young Cassidy also gives a transformative performance as Anna.
Score: 7/10
Bones and All – A young woman, Maren (Taylor Russell), and her father live on the fringes of society, moving from state to state. Just as things have settled for the two, they soon have to leave their home again due to Maren’s hunger for human flesh. While on her lone journey, Maren finds, Lee (Timothée Chalamet), someone who also holds the same hunger. Through its environments and horror influences, director Luca Guadagnino, has created a love story of alienated addicts (one that acts as a spiritual successor to Able Ferrara’s, The Addiction) and a subtle commentary on poverty set across the backdrop of the American Midwest. The love story at its core is one that feels authentic, with Russel and Chalamet providing raw and tragically infused performances. Although the core is solid, Guadagnino’s film does meander. Mark Rylance also has an appearance as Sully, whose introduction is interesting at first, but the character itself feels tacked on for the sake of conflict.
Score: 7/10
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – After the death of King T’Challa, his family and the nation of Wakanda are lost. Their geopolitical connections are fracturing and with no Black Panther, the nation is seen as vulnerable to the eyes of the world. Meanwhile, the invention of a vibranium detecting machine brings Namor (Tenoch Huerta) into the world with plans of revenge. Where Wakanda Forever’s predecessor was a cultural phenomenon, tackling relevant and societal issues (which was quite daring for a Disney picture); Wakanda Forever does not pack the same punch, thematically or emotionally. Much of Wakanda Forever’s flaws come from its bloated, overextended plot that is simply too messy to feel like a genuine elegy to the late Chadwick Boseman. Where the film succeeds is in its moments of reflection for the character of T’chala, most of these moments get buried under a sleugh of ugly CGI battles and a studio’s lust to introduce as much as possible for future endeavours. It is a real shame considering its opening and final fifteen minutes are genuinely quite powerful. However, once Namor arrives - in a really awkward and sloppy introduction – the film reverts to a standard McGuffin plot and a big existential threat to us human beings. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever could have been a truly special film, one that solely focussed on the loss of its central character; but instead, we have a studio overstuffing this reflective piece in order to fulfil its never-ending, multi-franchise narrative.