Trailer of the Week - The Mirror Crack'd

The little Agatha Christie season I'm having on here continues with an attempt to bring Miss Marple back to cinemas, in a way that's a bit more faithful to Christie's characterisation of her.  Now this was made in the wake of a few other successful Christie adaptations, namely the 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express, and the 1977 take on Death on the Nile.  Both of those were Poirot stories, so it makes sense to give her other great detective a go.  In fact, for the lead, they got one of the cast of Death on the Nile, as Angela Lansbury played one of the suspects in that (and she's fantastic in the role, devouring the scenery beautifully!).  Note, this was four years before her run as noted serial killer Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote.  So then, how's the film itself?

Canary Duty - The Dead Don't Die!

There are some filmmakers who have obvious talent in all the important ways, but I have a somewhat variable relationship with their works.  For example, despite my rants about Man of Steel (still from what I can tell the most read thing on this blog), I do still think that Zack Snyder is a genuinely good director, (even if he does overdo the slo-mo a lot) it's just the subject matter that's the problem.  Another case is Jim Jarmusch.  There are quite a few of his films I have a lot of trouble getting into, to the point that I start to think a lot of the most tired jokes about "quirky" indie filmmakers out there might be right on the money.  But when he's on point though, I dig it immensely, such as with Only Lovers Left Alive.  So I was a bit uncertain going into The Dead Don't Die, as to which mode he was going to be in  On the one hand, hey, a zombie movie, and all the interviews and such out there shows he has a lot of love and affection for the sub-genre.  On the other though, the trailer did show him to be at his most Jarmusch-y.  So what did I think of the end result?

Canary Duty - Annabelle Comes Home

Quick disclaimer before I start; I'm not quite up to date with the whole Conjuring-Universe thing; I didn't get round to seeing The Nun or The Curse of La Llarona, so if there are extra references to those in Annabelle Comes Home, they went right past me.  That's for the one of you reading this who has Marvel levels of respect for the continuity of this franchise.  Now the Annabelle films form a variable little series, or should we call this a sub-series.  I was actually at the UK press screening for the first Annabelle, which at the time seemed quite novel, creating a full shared universe from a new horror property.  In the end though, the scariest thing from the finished film was the paper masks we all got given.  Annabelle Creation though was a lot better, with a more interesting story, a better period setting, likeable characters, and the daring to put the children in a horror story in actual danger.  About the only real niggle I had with it was the slightly forced elements to fit the events of that one in with the events of the first Annabelle (and a heavy-handed bit foreshadowing for The Nun).  So now we have this one, which isn't quite a prequel like the others, from what I can tell it fits in between the first and second Conjuring movies.  So how does this one stack up?

Trailer(s) of the Week - The Miss Marple Quartet

I make it very clear that I lean into genre fare on here, and I make no apology, and take no shame in that.  But variety is the spice of life as I often say, so let's go for a bit more high-brow on here; since we've just had the trailer for Knives Out drop, how about a set of stylish murder mysteries, starring once of the true great detective characters, Agatha Christie's Miss Jane Marple?  Well, sort of...

Now let's get something clear; Dame Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple is very different to the version in Christie's original books.  In the novels and short stories, Marple was the sort who could quietly sit by the sidelines, and get a good overview of events, often not getting too stuck in herself directly until the end.  That's definitely not how Rutherford does things; her Marple is all too keen to get stuck in up to her arms in the mysteries, often personally calling out the guilty parties herself.  Both takes work for their versions though, so this not being faithful to Christie is far from a deal breaker.  If you want to watch a more faithful take, look up the BBC version from 1984 to 1992, starring Joan Hickson in the role.

Canary Duty - Midsommar

Now when I started doing this blog, my aim with all of my Canary Duty articles was to get them done ASAP.  Since I'm not doing these from press previews (not yet; hint hint any future employers of me out there!), I am just trying to get in to the first screening I can, and get my thoughts on the film up here immediately.  That was much harder to do in this case, and I don't just mean because of how late the screenings were; I had to really second guess and reassess my impressions of this one, because like his previous film Hereditary, Ari Aster has come up with something very challenging in Midsommar.  How you respond to it will be up to you, but to really dig into the hows, whys, and whethers of this film working, I will have to hint at a few spoilers, even if I don't entirely give the game away.  So I'll put above the page break my final verdict; Midsommar is very uncomfortable film, both in terms of hinting at subject matter and in character dynamics, it's gorgeously filmed, has a solid backbone of a character arc for the lead, and truly memorable imagery.  It's far more unnerving than it is traditionally "scary", and if you are familiar with the "Folk Horror" subgenre (one very major title in that field in particular) it won't surprise you, but this is one of those films where it's more about the journey than the destination.  If the idea of having a 140 minute simulation of a bad trip is something you think you can handle, go for this.  So with all that out the way, if you don't mind me circling Spoiler City Limits, let's dig a bit deeper after the trailer.

Treats for the Rest of the Year!

I had a look at my favourite five films in cinemas of the year so far, so let's follow up by having a quick peek at some films I'm very excited about seeing later on in the year.  I'll have ten on here, in chronological order of UK releases, and we'll go from August onwards.  Before the list itself, let's get the obvious two out of the way; yeah, I'm really keen on catching both Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, both have got a lot to live up to, and it will be fascinating to see if they can pull it off.  For this list though, I'm going to focus on here a few lesser known titles, one's that deserve a bit more buzz.

Indie Watch - Knife + Heart

Knife + Heart is a brand new French Giallo set around the world of late 70s gay porn films.  I think from that statement I'd have either already sold you on this, or you know very well that this isn't for you.  I could just stop here, but I might as well continue the pretence of this being a professional operation, so if you are interested, read on...

Half Term Report 2019

WHOOOOOAAAAHHHH, WE'RE HALF WAY THERE-ERE!!!  WHOAH-OH!!!!

I don't apologize for that at all.  Anyway, we're halfway through the year, so I thought I'd do a quick top five of my favourite films I've seen at the cinema this year.  Will I still think these are the top when it's time to do my top ten of the whole year list?  We'll see then, but for now, let's start with...