Movie review - "Babylon" (2022) ***

 Not hard in a way to see why it wasn't a hit - it's long, there's no real access point character (the lead, Diego Calva, should be this but he never seems to genuinely love Margot Robbie), there's things you could cut out, it is indulgent, things like elephant poo and Phoebe Tonkin peeing on a guy won't go down well...

But it is a valentine to cinema, Jean Smart's lovely speech to Pitt, very well acted, gorgeous to look at, lovely montage at the end, fantastic turns from Spike Jonze as the Curtiz like director, the first AD, the Dorothy Arzner type, the thumping music score.

Sometimes you feel a co writer would've helped - why make Li Jun Li a cabaret artist and title writer? - but it is definitely bold and interesting.

Movie review - "Barbie" (2023) ****

 Moves like a dream for the first two thirds. Can't quite dramatise its plot and issues for the last third - when it needed to build up to a big song, or dance or something it was a lot of talk. And they struggled to use the Will Ferrell subplot. But it has integrity, the politics are complex, the imagination off the charts. Great that it's such a theatrical experience too.

Movie review - "Amsterdam" (2022) **

 The first fifteen minutes of this were terrific - plunging into a mystery, two deaths, both murder, our heroes framed, massive stakes with the accused being a black man in 1934 - and I thought "why the dislike?" But then it goes into flashback and wobbles. All the repetitive dialogue - repetitive everything really. The heroes get off the hook too quickly, too early, the film lacks tension (the heroes have so much help - like why not use Mike Myers and Michael Shannon more), it's really about Robert de Niro's character. It goes on too long.

The stuff about fascism in America is pertinent and good on Russell for giving us a lesson, it just feels like they filmed the first draft.

Movie review - "The Suicide Squad" (2021) **

 This sounded like a great idea - get James Gunn to have a crack. Margot Robbie is terrific once more. Actually all the actors are good except John Cena, who struggles with the comedy.

But this has a black heart. There's a whole segment where the Squad go and shoot all these people - sometime electrocute them, cut their heads, etc... then, hahahahaha, it turns out they're friendly revolutionaries, hahahahah.

And there's a sequence where they discover all these people who've been tortured and mutated over 30 years. Is that fun?

And the team operate with an incredible lack of professionalism - going to a bar and boozing on.

Then we're meant to care when the characters are given backstory involving their parnts?

The film must break some kind of record for killing off NS guards. After a while I started to feel sorry for her.

Daniela Melchior is fun as the sleepy rat girl. The shark is entertaining (Stallone did the voice).

It's just a mean spirited film. I also think Americans don't go for films where their government is really really bad.

Movie review - "Bombshell" (2019) ***1/2

 A box office disappointment but I think this sort of movie just belongs on streaming now. It's an engrossing story, the exposition is well handled, and it has fun star performances - Charlize Theron, Nicole K, Margot Robbie. Very strong support cast including Kate McKinnon.

Movie review - "Birds of Prey" (2020) ****

 Really fun. Bright. Wonderful tone. Good actors. Margot Robbie a solid lead, Ewen McGregor and Chris Messina having the time of their lives as villain. Funny moments.  Great production design.

Took too long to get going - the story doesn't start until 40 minutes in. Didn't need all that set up.  It's actually a simple story about trying to get a diamond. It didn't need the rest.

Also didn't need to be R. Why? A key character is a 12 year old girl (or some age like that). Why not let them go see it. A few trims of language and blood and surely they would have been fine and this would have made that much more. I'm Monday morning quarterbacking now.

Movie review - "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (2019) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Random thoughts
- Nicholas Hammond of all people knocks it out of the park
- Bruce Dern was fine but that would have been the perfect last role for Burt Reynolds
- like a lot of film buffs I was sitting there going "I love a lot of this but I get the Fabian and Michael Rennie references, I'm weird, what about normal people?"
- the film was about fetishness - movie posters, TV guide, cigarette packets, logos
- the money is well spent - it's a film about movie stars, production design and Tarantino - without those things it would be a hard slog (for some people it will be)
- I get the ending and I liked it
- the final assault ramming head repeatedly thing... that wasn't cool... wasn't cathartic in the way that say killing Nazis in Inglorious Basterds was or slave owners in Django Unchained was or rapist men in Kill Bill was... the women were killers but marginalised members of society... also we just meet them in the film.
- all the acting is excellent
- I wonder if the 8 year old girl on the set of Lancer is some allusion to James Stacy's pedophilia, not accessed in the film
- there is no female role with shade and dimension - Tate dances and is ethereal, the Charlie girls are sex objects/psychos/"other", Ric's Italian wife jabbers and gesticulates even though she takes part in a crucial scene, Brad Pitt's wife is a nagging bitch... in contrast the male roles are given lots of depth... Brad and Leo of course but also Emile Hirsch's pining Jay Sebring, Bruce Dern's George Spahn
- the visit to the Spahn Ranch was v creepy
- Mike Moh is a great Bruce Lee

Movie review - "Mary Queen of Scots" (2018) **1/2

Frustrating because there are some superb things - well one, really, the performance of Saoirse Ronan as Mary Queen of Scots. The whole conception and depiction of this character is perhaps the best ever of Mary in a film - she's proud, smart, charismatic, a bit dodgy, cunning but not cunning enough, with bad judgement.

Margot Robbie's Elizabeth is strong too - insecure, uncertain, but with a big picture view (and better advisers) than Mary. The scene between the two at the end is brilliant - that's what the whole film should have been, about their relationship.

But it's not. It's patchy and uncertain. Scenes seem to randomly start and end. There's little dramatic build. We have the greatest hits but it never seems real never comes alive.

The support actors are shockingly poorly drawn. Guy Pearce's sidekick just spouts lines in a bad beard. Mary's brother glowers in a beard. Darnley has something to do (bisexual and useless). Rizzio's gay, which is fine, but that's it for him - no depth, no shade. Robert just pines over Elizabeth. Bothwell just glowers. John Knox just shrieks. Mary's handmaidens - who could easily have characters - just giggle. Elizabeth's handmaiden doesn't even do that.

The theatre background of the director is evident in scenes like the assassination of Rizzio - it feels stagy - and the random diversity casting of some support players. I don't really mind they put in a black actor and an Asian actor - this period was more racially diverse in reality than many people realise - but these actors don't have a character to play. That black noble just sort of spouts exposition  Elizabeth's Asian lady in waiting infuriated me - I've got problem her being Asian, but she had no character. She just say there and listened.

I get the feeling this really should have been a six part series. The time jumps wouldn't have been disconcerting - you could build to definite climaxes like the death of Rizzio, Darnley, etc.

As it is the film doesn't have courage to focus on what it's theme should be - Elizabeth and Mary as sisters, women in a man's world.  The story needed to totally focus on that. It kind of does but this theme is dissipated.

Movie review- "Suicide Squad" (2016) ** (warning: spoilers)

So many good things about it - the concept, the cast, the production design, the ideas. It's made by talented people. But it doesn't work. It was written too quickly. It doesn't click.

Like Batman vs Superman there's too much going on. The film should be relatively simple - bad guys get out of prison to get someone even badder. The Dirty Dozen did it well - establish the characters, give a few of them back story, spend act two having them bond (the training/war games sequence) then send them into battle for act three. Pick some to actually die to give it some stakes.

So we have Deadshot, Harley Quinn, El Diablo. That's all good. The Lee Marvin character is Amanda Waller - oh and also Rick Flagg. And now things get confusing because Flagg is in love with June Moone who is possessed by the Enchantress. The Enchantress wants to... rule the world I think.

Deadshot's motivation is clear - it's for his daughter. Harley is tormented by the Joker. I got Flagg's issue. I was confused by El Diablo.

The Flagg stuff is interesting - too interesting. It pulls focus from the Suicide Squad. I like the story - give it to the Suicide Squad people - El Diablo or someone. They would've been better off dumping Flagg and the Enchantress  - having Amanda Waller do the Lee Marvin role. And make the Joker the villain. That's right, the Joker is a supporting character - you could cut him out of the movie and it wouldn't affect anything.

Margot Robbie is amazing. Will Smith is good as is Viola Davis. Jared Leto isn't very good. I hope they get to do it right for the sequel.

Script review - "I, Tonya" by Steve Rogers

It's surprising in a way it took Hollywood so long to make a film about Tonya Harding - she's got such great name recognition and it's clearly going to be a fantastic role for whoever played her. Maybe it was too associated with 90s scandal like OJ or the Menendez brothers, or Amy Fisher.

It actually reminded me of a 1990s film - To Die For with Nicole Kidman. It has the same pieces to camera, and protagonists' love of fame, and look at the dark underbelly of American society, etc.

This has some funny lines, and strongly etched characters - Tony, her mother, her abusive husband Jeff, his idiot mate. It does feel very familiar at times. Once or twice though it was surprising and moved me - such as Tonya doing the triple. But all too often it felt "surface".

Movie review - "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" (2016) **** (warning: spoilers)

This wasn't a box office hit which is a shame because there are so many good things about it: the script is bright, smart and funny; Tina Fey is very good and ideally cast in a role that pushes her; there's impressive production details; it has a fresh take on the war in Afghanistan.

The casting of some of the support roles jarred. Maybe in real life Martin Freeman is suave and charming but to me he came across as Martin Freeman wearing a beard and a fake Scottish accent trying to be suave and charming. Margot Robbie felt too young, too pretty and too fake-English-accent for her part (which really required someone who looked as though they'd Been Around). I really wish the parts played by Alfred Molina and Christopher Abbott had been played by real Afghanis. I know (or at least can guess) why they weren't, but for this film I wish things had seemed more authentic.

I had no problems with Billy Bob Thornton, or Steve Peacocke - my main gripe for the latter was the reveal that he was Canadian... but they don't follow it up (it felt as though it needed a few other lines or something).

Still, it was a first rate movie, another impressive effort from the teams of Fey-Robert Carlock and Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (who directed).

Movie review - "The Big Short" (2015) ****

Hollywood takes on the GFC - so the protagonists are people who made a pile of money out of it, by betting against the market. It's an irony the characters often comment on - the fact the heroes triumph mean that the world's economy crashed. But it is a fresher way of looking at the disaster.

There are three main groups - Steve Carrell and his gang, loosely associated with Ryan Gosling; Christian Bale and his gang; two guys and Brad Pitt. The villains are the bankers and inefficient government.

There's a lot of exposition - so much so you wonder if it couldn't have been dramatised better. I think the filmmakers fell in love with the conceit of having celebrities explain things when surely they could have been demonstrated via action. It's criticisms about the treatment of immigrants and poor people might have had more impact in a film that didn't fail the Bechdel test so badly (most female characters are strippers, and/or celebrities).

But it is a smart film and it treats its audience smartly. Bale and Carrell engage in a lot of Acting but after a while I got used to it, and the social anger and comment is insightful and pointed. Often very funny and also anger making, and further serves to highlight Adam Mackay as the leading political satirist of his generation.

Movie review - "About Time" (2013) ****

Richard Curtis' most recent movie is less a rom com than a "drama-dy" which is reminiscent of some of the time plays of JP Priestley. It has a lot of logic problems - Curtis sets up the rules of time travel and then breaks most of them, pays distracting lack of attention to big issues (would Domhnall Gleeson really be dissuaded to make money by his father saying "have you ever met a really happy rich person?", once he starts doing some favours for others such as his flatmate I began wondering why he didn't help by warning victims of terrorist attacks and car crashes)...

But after a while I went with it, and the piece worked it's magic on me. Curtis clearly has such a good heart, and that comes through in his movie, which is never mean, full of love and kindness, and the importance of family and looking out for each other.

Gleeson lacks the star power of Hugh Grant but is very likeable as a gawky Curtis lead who discovers he has the power to use time, and romances charming Rachel McAdams - who is a bit too pretty for him, but maybe I'm just biased. There's a typically stunningly strong support cast including Bill Nighy (dad), Lindsay Duncan (mum), Tom Hollander (grumpy playwright), Richard Griffiths and Richard E Grant (cameos as actors), Lydia Wilson (wacky sister), Josh McGuire and Will Merrick (silly best best friends)... plus our own Margot Robbie, looking gorgeous as an early object of Gleeson's desire.

There are plenty of Curtis tropes: a wedding, a funeral, some dopey best mates (not one but two), a manic pixie dream girl, an American love interest, upper middle class setting, some pop culture references (in this case a lot of adoration for Kate Moss), the wacky housemate. Still there's freshness too: the Cornwall house, the dinner in the dark (I love this sequence). London has been lovingly shot, as have the women. The second half is more about Gleeson and Bill Nighy than McAdams - in fact McAdams isn't seen that much.

This makes you think about regret, love, time passing, family... I was moved and even shed a tear. I think sci fi fans might struggle with the logic though!

Movie review - "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013) ****

In many ways this reminded me of Al Pacino's version of Scarface - it's about an outsider who comes to the promised land, gets a mentor who gives him advice on how to make as much money as possible, and soon becomes filthy rich and determined to live as hedonistic a life as possible. He has a loyal best friend and is taken in by a seductive woman and ultimately it all comes crashing down.

And Al Pacino in the early 80s would have made ideal casting for the lead in this - it's a part that requires a star capable of hammy flamboyance - but Leo di Caprio steps up nicely. His partnership with Martin Scorsese has become one of the most satisfying in cinema history, each collaboration being a little different, always interesting.

Marty seems to be having the time of his life with all the scenes of partying, and stockbrokers yelling, and narrative tricks (actors talking to camera, changing voice overs). This is very much in the spirit of Goodfellas, only with less of a body count and more money. It also feels very Oliver Stone - complete with concentration on men behaving badly, and female roles which mainly consist of nags and/or sex pots.

It was actually written by Terence Winter of Boardwalk Empire fame, and the HBO influence can be felt in a few key, extremely well written long dialogue scenes - such as one between Leo and Matthew McConaughey in a restaurant (I'm confused at my increasing feelings of respect for Mahoganey, few actors can have made such a sharp up turn in terms of quality in their career over a period) and one between Kyle Chandler and Leo on a boat.

Jonah Hill offers sterling support. There's also superb work done by Margot Robbie, who looks sensational, sounds great and holds her own with Leo in some domestic scenes. Actually all the cast is good, really.

Two things stop this from being a really outstanding film. One - it does tend to hit the same beat over and over ("we were crazy", "we were out of control") without really expanding its world view; occasionally there was a glimpse at a more complex world (the sad look on a secretary who agreed to shave her hair off, Leo punching Margot Robbie) but there wasn't enough (no look at any of the victims, for instance - although the victims were mostly victims of their own greed). Second - it was needlessly long; there were several sequences which could have easily been cut and nothing really would have been lost (eg the gay butler sequence, the stuff where they went partying the night before going to Switzerland). Still, a grand old romp.