Film Reviews by GI

Almost forgotten today but the first moon landing in 1969 was a major world event and it marked a feeling of a big change for the world, a change that sadly did not come to pass but if you remember being caught up in this historic event this documentary rekindles the feeling of hope that was rife at the time. As a documentary this has huge interest looking into the life of the first man on the moon and revealing a life tinged with tragedy and a workaholic sense of duty that cost him in his personal life. Admittedly this lacks the sheer spectacle of the 2019 documentary Apollo 11 but if you are interested in the Gemini & Apollo space missions this is worth checking out. It's a straight forward, no frills film that uses archive footage and interviews with family, friends and colleagues to tell the life story of Neil Armstrong, it's obviously dominated by the moon landing itself but it's in the private life that there is a human story worth checking out.

An understated sexual harassment drama that quietly, almost eloquently and very astutely exposes the casual toxic masculinity that thrives in the corporate world. Julia Garner, in a very restrained yet powerful performance is a bright, young junior assistant to a powerful manager in an entertainment business. She has the dogsbody role in the office, basically the first to arrive and the last to leave, but it's in the everyday misogyny she sees from her boss (cleverly kept hidden throughout) and the fall out from his angry wife when she has to cover for his dalliances with young women that pushes her to go to the slimy head of HR (Matthew Mcfadyen) to complain. His response is not what she expects. This is an interesting film that approaches its theme and subject through the nuanced performance of Garner who is on screen the entire film. This won't be for everyone and as a film it may come across as slow and not quite reaching some sort of explosive conclusion which is always expected. In dealing with the pervasive, cultural sexism in everyday life it works very well.

A drama about sexual awakening that pushes the boundaries of onscreen sex and has a theme about the danger of youth culture. Set on the Danish/Belgian border where one summer a group of eight teenager friends, out of boredom, begin to explore their sexuality. This soon becomes tiresome for them and their moral and natural boundaries begin to wear away as they delve into depravity, criminality and soon become predatory which leads to tragedy. As an extreme vision of youth violence, albeit here using sex as their weapon, this has some interesting things to say but sadly the film offers up an explanation that has the effect of diffusing the entire film into a type of clever caper story. That essentially spoils the film. As a film that is trying to push against the boundaries of cinematic sex this is of interest but ultimately it's disappointing.

Smart, fast talking, funny and an unashamedly feminist comedy that is very clever, very well written and very entertaining. Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) are two high achieving students on the eve of graduating where Molly is off to an Ivy league University and Amy onto a gap year working in Africa before taking up a top college place too. They have achieved this by working hard and shunning the party hard mentality of their peers. But then they discover that their fellow students have also gained top places in top universities too they suddenly realise they have missed out. So they decide to attend the biggest graduation party in town but have to find out where it is first as they haven't been invited. The two stars are in every scene and it's their hilarious dynamic that drives the film and where the themes of confident sexuality, friendship and tolerance are grounded. A remarkable debut from first time director Olivia Wilde and great performances including cameos from Lisa Kudrow and Jason Sudeikis. The High School antics comedy is not a new film genre but this one exudes originality and goes in unexpected directions. Recommended.

A supernatural thriller with it's story based around a weird house (echoes of The Shining are fairly obvious) where middle aged, jealous and stressed Theo (Kevin Bacon) goes with his much younger screen actress wife Susanna (Amanda Seyfried) and their six year old daughter Ella (Avery Essex) for a much needed getaway. It's a big, modern property, in Wales, with no phone signal and a strange design to it. Theo has a dodgy past which comes back to haunt him as strange things begin to happen. There's a lot that's clichéd here but equally the film does offer some quirky twists and sudden events that take you by surprise. Story wise it's enjoyable and entertaining but as a modern indie horror film it lacks that certain sharp sense of impending terror to make it something good. There are events and characters that are left unexplained especially around the house itself which leaves you feeling perplexed and unsatisfied by the end. Entertaining as far as it goes but could have been better.

A nicely watchable mystery thriller that has a story created around an actual legendary mystery. Three crew arrive at a remote Scottish lighthouse for a six week tour, experienced keepers Thomas (Peter Mullan) and James (Gerard Butler) and novice Donald (Connor Swindells). The morning after a particularly bad storm they find a lifeboat washed up containing a sole crew member who has a mysterious box with him. The decisions the three make that morning has devastating affects on all of them. There's a good story here, and windswept lighthouses are perfect for mystery stories such as this. The three lead actors are all on fine form and Butler especially is channelling his more vulnerable side after so many action heroics in recent films. Well worth an evenings viewing.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that this is a going to be a teen comedy what with SNLs Amy Poehler in the directors chair and if indeed it was such a film it would be a rather familiar and predictable film. But this isn't that type of film at all, yes it has humour (not least from Poehler herself who has a role) but this is more a considerate and thoughtful drama that calls out sexism and calls it out loud and clear. Set in a fictitious Oregon college where Vivian (Hadley Robinson) is a student and, along with her best friend, she tries to stay under the radar not least because the school is dominated by the stereotypical sports jocks, much in the favour of the laissez-faire Principal (Marcia Gay Haden). They indulge in testosterone filled abuse of the girls including publishing a list that includes titles like "most bangable" and "best rack". Enraged Vivian anonymously begins a feminist club she names Moxie and very soon her home produced magazine has many supporters much to the consternation of the Principal and the boorish, sexist football captain Mitchell (Patrick Schwarzenegger). And soon some very serious issues come to light. The film steers a balanced path through these issues of casual sexual assault, abusive behaviour and cultural tolerance so this isn't a shouty feminist rant but a well written, well performed discourse on the treatment of women in their day to day lives. The film is entertaining and makes it's points firmly and accurately. Recommended for everyone.

A thoroughly clichéd British gangster film full of stereotypes but terrifically entertaining even when it is occasionally makes you cringe. Heavily influenced by Harry Brown (2009) this relies on very dark humour to create a film that pits the old guard of criminal against the nastier and without honour new youth gangs. When former east end villain Charlie Archer (Steven Berkoff) is murdered by a feral street gang led by Aaron (Danny Hatchard) Charlie's brother Ritchie (Ian Ogilvy) comes home from self imposed exile in Spain to find out who killed him and to mete out his revenge. There's a stupid attempt here to create a London that benefited in the past from the control by the old 60s gangsters but has now gone wild with viciousness. Some might say it has a point but it's a clumsy attempt at moralising organised crime with giving it a code of honour and the film is best viewed as a cartoonish gangster film that homages films from The Italian Job (1969) (indeed there's a reference to this film at the end) to The Long Good Friday (1980), even the corrupt cop here is given an honourable reason for being corrupt (his ill gotten gains paid for the care of his very ill wife). Some of the character links in the story are a step too far too. Good strong British cast including Alison Doody, James Cosmo (always great as a psychopath), Christopher Ellison and Lysette Anthony. Great fun and popular enough to get a sequel and apparently a third is in the pipeline. Watch for the sheer entertainment value and ignore it's empty moralising.

A New York set indie comedy that has some funny and also some dark moments. 28 year old Brittany (Jillian Bell) is a depressive, binge drinking, unfit and unhealthy woman who's life is a cycle of toxic relationships and comfort eating. A visit to her doctor, where he tells her she is obese and needs to lose weight, pushes Brittany to start running. Eventually after meeting some new friends at a local running group she decides to run the New York Marathon but the journey proves a tough one, not only in the training but also her life in general with many setbacks. The character of Brittany is in many ways similar to Bridget Jones but this delves into the more serious issues of self esteem and self worth and she's based on a real Brittany. The story isn't totally predictable either and it works well in showing that what Brittany sets out to do is an obstacle littered task and that success is not guaranteed. This is a comedy but it's also a drama that works because you root for her at every turn and twist of the story. An entertaining film and one that's worth checking out.

A very wordy B movie style sci-fi that has gained some real fans. Set in the late 1950s, a time of alien and communist paranoia, in a small New Mexico town. Local DJ and the young town switchboard operator begin to investigate a strange throbbing sound picked up over the airwaves and sightings of something in the sky. They are contacted by two people with eerie stories to tell of 'people from the sky'. The film has a trippy almost surreal feel but at times I found it a bit slow going although the finale is worth the wait. An interesting debut feature from director Andrew Patterson.

This deadpan comedy is a strange film. I tried hard but found it a difficult film to get acclimatised with. There is much to admire but the overall experience left me empty and a little bewildered. Set in the harsh, plain sunny streets of LA the story follows the lives of a family trio of dysfunctional grifters, parents Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Theresa (Debra Winger) and their twenty something daughter who they've named Old Dolio for absurd and demeaning reasons (Evan Rachel Wood). They spend their lives scamming and stealing from people and come up with a plan for an airline luggage con during which Robert & Theresa meet the apparently normal Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) who ends up joining their band but who sees that Old Dolio is repressed but starting to realise her bizarre lifestyle is not normal. She decides to help her break free from the clutches of her parents. There is a style here and Wood is especially good although the film is bleak and in it's surreal narrative structure it lacks a warmth that I felt it needed to make it a more endearing and uplifting story.

The English public school narrative with it's bully or be bullied life has been very well mined by filmmakers for years. This doesn't really offer much that's new, utilising the basic elements of the Cyrano de Bergerac story to tell the story of nerdy student Amberson (Alex Lawther), who is low down the food chain in a clichéd public school that gives more importance to it's tough rugby style game than teaching the boys the basics of life. He falls helplessly in love with Agnés (Pauline Etienne), the daughter of the new French teacher but she only has eyes for the handsome but dimwitted head boy, Winchester (Jonah Hauer-King). Amberson agrees to help Winchester to impress her but all the time his romantic efforts just show his own ever deepening love. The film has some humour but it's ultimately a bit of a lame film and Lawther deserves better than playing another posh nerd.

The story of the infamous 'Panama Papers' that revealed a web of dodgy, off shore corporate dealings and tax evasions told in a fictionalised series of stories narrated by the two businessman at the centre of it all, here played with a sort of cabaret cheerfulness by Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas. The main part of the story concerns Meryl Styreep's Ellen, whose husband is killed when a lake ferry capsizes while they are on holiday. When Ellen seeks to make claim for negligence she finds the insurance is mired in shady companies set up to avoid paying. So she begins her own investigation. The trouble is this is a messy film, it has other stories which help expose the two bad guys but some are short and some are long without any real sense of why. An extended story involving a businessman caught out having an affair by his daughter is given more screen time for no reason I can work out. There's no doubt that director Steven Soderbergh really wants to get this story told but the style and structure of the film makes it a tedious experience. Streep is clearly enjoying herself for reasons I won't spoil and the cast is prestigious including James Cromwell, Jeffrey Wright, Robert Patrick, David Schwimmer and Matthias Schoenaerts amongst others. An attempt to make a film about this scandal on the same lines as The Big Short (2015) but it's not as well told.

Michael Palin's first solo effort away from the Monty Python team and a film he wrote, scripted and stars in. This is a big step away from the Python zany comedy and much closer to the style of Palin's TV series Ripping Yarns. Essentially a comedy of manners set in 1906 and Palin is the enthusiastic yet naïve Reverend Charles Fortescue who returns to England after ten years as a missionary in Africa. He yearns to marry his fiancée Deborah but his Bishop (Denholm Elliott) gives him a new role to set up a mission in London for 'fallen women'. This sets the frustrated Charles on a difficult course surrounded by young women who want some genuine love and affection and his troubles are further enhanced by the unwelcome attentions of his sponsor, Lady Ames (Maggie Smith). A gentle comedy with a wonderful recreation of the times especially the slums of docklands. There's a dreamy and nostalgic atmosphere to the film and it's a delight with little bursts of silliness and Palin's skill at portraying a boring man forced into unusual circumstances. A film well worth renting if you've never seen it. There's a prestigious cast too, Trevor Howard, Michael Hordern, Timothy Spall and David Suchet.

British social drama that highlights the plight of young people forced into becoming the main carers in their family. This story follows 15 year old Sarah (Liv Hill) who is angry yet quick witted and intelligent. Her mother (Sinead Matthews) is a manic depressive and thoroughly unreliable spending most of her time in bed. Sarah cares for her two younger twin siblings, feeding them and getting them to school while trying to go to school herself and holding down a crap job at an amusement arcade to pay for food and bills. The money isn't enough and she is forced into providing sexual favours for the seedy old men who frequent the arcade. Her drama teacher (Cyril Nri) sees some talent for comedy in her and encourages her to write and perform for the school show but her family problems are forever stifling her life. Like alll such dramas this is powerful stuff and has some uncomfortable scenes although director James Gardner rightly avoids explicit visuals to focus on the after effects on Sarah. Liv Hill gives a strong performance with the emotional turmoil she faces clearly evident. Set in Margate this does exhibit the somewhat out of date and griminess of British seaside towns which may come across as a little clichéd but overall this is a film worth checking out.