Film 2019 - Week 2 (Mon 7th - Sun 13th January)

Two weeks down, fifty to go.  Let's get down to business, starting with a special preview for a title out on general release later this month...



4. Destroyer - NFT 1, BFI Southbank

First of several things I'm seeing this month that screened at the London Film Festival back in October, but I didn't get to see then (only so many hours in the day and pounds in the account you know!).  This one, which was in the official competition, particularly interested me because of the director, Karyn Kusama, who has done some great work in the horror genre, specifically the truly chilling The Invitation, one of those films I recommend to everyone despite the fact I can tell you anything about it without giving the game away.  On that note, this one has a few surprise reveals in the story that some people recommending it may big up, but they're more clever narrative slights of hand rather than "this changes everything!" moments, so don't go into this expecting it to Shyamalan you, and you'll enjoy it.  Well, enjoy might not be the right word given how grim this is but it's a rewarding watch.  Nicole Kidman deserves all the praise going for her performance in this, not least for how well she sells all the traditionally male cop "I'm too old for this shit" tropes in here, successfully Mickey Spillane-ing her way through the plot!

5. Bumblebee - Odeon Surrey Quays

First Limitless screening of the year, and it's for one that a lot of people have been bigging up.  Yeah, it's OK.  I will agree that it's definitely the best of these Transformers movies, however the bar for these has been set pretty damn low.  It is a very solid story, albeit one that has borrowed quite a few notes from the likes of E.T. and The Iron Giant, and very well made.  There are a few issues I have with the story though, mostly in terms of dodgy editing, although it has a fairly good reason for these problems.  See, this started out as a prequel, but at some point, probably as the producers took a long look at how the last movie turned out, they decided to rework this as a new start for the franchise, partially to get all the Michael Bay out of the franchise, and partially to make things easier with Hasbro's idea for a shared film universe.  There's an interview with director Travis Knight where he mentioned one major link to the first movie which got cut.  So I guess you could call this a... Reboot in Disguise?

:ducks to hide from the thrown tomatoes:

OK OK, sorry!  The point being, there are a few slightly odd story beats and transitions, and my theory is that the main changes all come with the scenes just featuring the Transformers themselves, where they change the dialogue and such to take things in a different direction.  This does lead to a few slightly awkward dialogue beats and such, such as one moment towards the end when main character Charlie makes a big dramatic move that's been foreshadowed all film... which turns out to be pointless as she doesn't accomplish anything by doing it, so it does feel like there was an extra plot point in there that's been cut.  Now I'm not pointing this out to say this is a bad film, I know from experience what a bad Transformers movie looks like, I'm just saying it's just a good film, not a great one.  However, it's definitely a step in the right direction for the franchise, and if it does well enough at the box office, I wouldn't mind seeing some more of this style of Transformers films.  Big question; why the hell didn't they just make this sort of film to start with 2006?

6. Widows - Odeon Greenwich

Another LFF catch-up, this time of the opening night gala title, and having seen the film, I can definitely say that it deserved that honour.  It's one of those things you don't know you've wanted to see it for ages until you do, in this case basically a Michael Mann style heist movie with female leads and a director who can manage something other than just pure style.  Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn bring a real A-game in here, with a slick, complex thriller, touching on a lot of big ideas, making a story originally done in 80s British TV particularly topical.  What a cast is assembled for this one too, from Viola Davis bringing quite a complex lead to life, right down to tiny bit parts filled by reliable character actors like Kevin J. O'Connor.  I'm going to give extra points for Cynthia Erivo in this as Belle; between this and Bad Times at the El Royale, she's rapidly becoming a new favourite actress of mine, hope this leads for more big things for her.  I should point out that I haven't watched the original mini-series version, only know it by reputation, but I definitely want to correct this some time soon.

So, currently averaging about one cinema trip every two days-ish, which given what I'm currently booked for this week, should hold true for this week too.  I'm getting into new habits and learning a few things about doing this... not least that I really need to start properly writing these blog posts before Monday evening!