The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

INT. A STARRY CAST - NIGHT

Joel Coen is already a great established director with the combined work alongside his brother Ethan. But this is the first time Joel is dropping solo into the big bad battle royal world that we call ‘Cinema.’ Joel strikes gold with his retelling of Shakespeare’s beautiful story, fantastic cinematography, and, above all, a perfect cast.

I first want to prise the use of light in The Tragedy of Macbeth. Black and white films are renowned for shaping and folding light for different effects. But I think of more recent B&W films such as The Lighthouse, I see how simply this film uses its lighting. While I still believe that The Lighthouse has overall a better aesthetic than The Tragedy of Macbeth, the overall simplicity of this film shows how if you have a great story, you don’t need anything too flashy.

While everything is simple, there’s nothing simple about the cast. Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Brendan Gleeson, Alex Hassel, Cory Hawkins & Harry Melling. Each character feels perfectly cast (even if one of them is your wife) and they all perform the most confusing but beautiful dialogue of recent memory.

I don’t blame Denzel’s action fanboys for skipping this one. Joel and Ethan Coen are well known for that Coen brothers’ style and while it’s not present here, Joel tells a phenomenal story without anything too flamboyant–dramatic sure, but not over the top ridiculous like Buster Scruggs in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Let’s hope that it’s not Joel’s last solo adventure because more films like this would be great!

FADE OUT

#82 - The Tragedy of Macbeth & The Lost Daughter

Spoiler Review: 43:53

Halloween Kills

INT. HALLOWEEN: MICHAEL STRIKES BACK - NIGHT

Michael Myers is back and he’s mad as all hell.  I’ll start off by saying, I’m not a horror guy. The list of my favorite horror films is a small one: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alien, Midsommar. But for me, sequels that ‘bring the heat’ will always be rated higher. Halloween Kills is the Aliens in this rebooted trilogy. Spooky, tense, action-packed and it’s the sequel to a horror movie, after watching this movie you’ll see what I mean. Michael Myers is still the horror icon he has always been, but someone has been watching John Wick.

While Halloween (2018) might be the horror reboot, and the start of this trilogy. Halloween Kills, the ‘second act,’ as I’m calling it, shows us the terror/power Michael has, setting up the final battle between him and Laurie which we’ll hopefully see in Halloween Ends. Speaking of Laurie, she’s become the Sarah Connor of this universe, which we saw in the previous installment, but in this film, she’s the one on the sideline. Laurie is just spilling exposition, we often cut back to her telling another character how ‘Michael is “MORE THAN A MAN”, He’s transcending into something more’ speech. While many hardcore fans might be disappointed that she’s not going head-to-head with Michael again, I’m not, because this film isn’t about their epic battle. We learned what Laurie can do in Halloween (2018) and we learned what Michael can do in Halloween Kills. Setting up a massive conclusion for Halloween Ends. No pressure to the filmmakers.  


For those not enjoying this film, maybe not every ‘reboot’ should follow the same structure as the original (look at the latest Star Wars movies) Halloween Kills stands on its own two feet, it’s the action-horror it can and wants to be. Michael is terrifying, Laurie is a backbencher, Allyson takes the fight to Michael, legacy characters you’ll have to make your own opinion on, but I liked their inclusion.  If you want horror, it’s there, but go in wanting action and you’ll love it.  

Review on QOS Podcast: HERE
Halloween (1978): 46:42

Halloween (2018) / Halloween Kills

Non-Spoiler Review: 59:36 - Halloween Kills: 64:15

Spoiler Review: 67:38

Ratings: 83:49

The Green Knight is the best film of 2021

INT. WHEN HONOUR IS EVERYTHING – DAY 

The Green Knight isn’t another retold Arthurian tale on its 10th remake. This is the intimate tale of Sir Gawain, the not-yet-honorable and not-yet-a-knight nephew of King Arthur, and his journey into a world full of mystical challenges and honorable ones too, to complete The Green Knights seemingly impossible to cheat challenge. 

We start within Camelot’s walls, perfectly protected from the evil and folklore surrounding it nothing is out of the normal here. Like any Arthurian legend, Camelot is safe, but The Green Knight is a world of magic and eccentricity, by easing us in we too experience this journey that Gawain embarks on. We thought we knew the rules of the world, but Camelot is a haven compared to the world we enter together.
We have a backdrop; the stage is set. The Story?...

During the Christmas celebrations, The Green Knight appears to set the challenge.

Should he land a blow, then one year hence, he must seek me out, He shall find me and bend a knee and I will return what was given to me. (Paraphrased) 

Minor spoilers to follow.

Gawain accepts and this is the story we follow. We understand the outcome that is to take place and we follow Gawain to the honorable yet expected death that awaits him.

This film knows what it is, something rare to find these days (Unless it’s an A24 film.) The style, tone, and atmosphere are confidently displayed in every scene, shot, and line. Performances are top class; Dev Patel holds the film together like glue, with one of his strongest performances to date. Minor roles are handed out to established talent, Joel Edgerton, Sean Harris, Alicia Vikander. Nothing ever feels undercooked when it comes to the characters and their performance, and no character feels over-the-top in this over-the-top world. 

The world-building is epic, in both scale and in how fucking cool it is. It doesn’t diverge from established Arthurian ideas and themes but modernises them in classic indie style. We ease our way into it from the norm set in Camelot to Giants walking across large plains and this is where I can separate audiences that will love or hate this movie. Spirits or warfare, pick one. Because the film has both, however, it will use one as a backdrop and one to continue Gawain’s journey. People either want action or a mystical adventure and as I said earlier this is an intimate tale, so don’t go expecting an Arthurian John Wick (although hit me up when that movie exists.) 

Gawain knows the challenge set, The Green Knight will return what was given, and Gawain straight up decapitated him. The end of Gawain’s journey will hit you, depending on how much you enjoyed this film you’ll either be amazed or just pissed off. But this film stands on its own two feet saying, ‘this is the story we want to tell’, and for me at least, it left me thinking about it for the rest of the week. The Green Knight, right now, is my favourite movie of the year. I challenge another movie to knock it off, but it might make it into my Letterboxd favourites, yet it could be the high I’m on from it. Another sitting will be necessary. 

If you didn’t believe that Dev Patel wasn’t already a king, this movie will help you reinforce that message. 

So, if you couldn’t tell, I loved watching The Green Knight. 

5/5

FADE OUT

Pig (2021)

INT. PORKCHOP – DAY

This film, like many others, has the potential to be a great movie, but it also has the characteristic of a flop. You have, first and foremost, Nicolas Cage. An actor who stereotypically doesn’t play tame, slow roles. You also have a very small budget with a very large-scale idea and, at least according to IMDB trivia, an untrained pig. If I told you these things without showing you a trailer or any screenshot of the film, imagine what that film would be.

That image in your head is from alternative universe because in this reality, it’s a fucking hit.

All the pieces are laid out and putting it all together seemed near impossible, there can be some pieces missing here and there however, the overall picture is clear.

Cage pulls out one of his best performances, one that doesn’t reach the same level as ‘Joe’ but comes very close. The smaller budget required excellent storytelling to be front and centre, and whilst originally having a runtime of two hours, cutting it down to the 90-minute runtime was again another very good move.

Cage is the glue to hang the picture on the wall. He captivates every scene he’s in, drawing me in with what mysteries he’s hiding. There were so many times I thought, this can’t be the same guy from, most recently, ‘Willy’s Wonderland’ (which I watched about 40 minutes of and had to turn off) or even ‘The Wicker Man.’ It is a brave performance, reminding me that we need to give this man another Oscar.

Alex Wolff holds his own too. Not his strongest performance to date, however I can see Alex rising over the next few years, after all every actor needs to have a fun role occasionally and Nic Cage has been doing fun roles for a very long time.

Finally, a word of warning, many of my friends who saw the trailer and read up about the film thought this would be a ‘Nic Cage – John Wick’ movie, and while yes, the trailer gives that vibe, it’s nothing like John Wick. So please, don’t go into this movie wanting that, you’ll come out disappointed. Go in expecting to see a well-crafted film and be surprised with the journey it takes you on.

Because honestly, if Nicolas Cage wanted his pig back, I wouldn't care who he is, I’m giving him his fucking pig back.

FADE OUT.

Sonic The Hedgehog

INT. HOW IS JIM CARREY MORE OF A CARTOON THAN SONIC - DAY

Sonic, The Hedgehog is yet another video game to movie adaption with so many bugs. The film follows Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) on a road trip to San Francisco to collect Sonics rings (those rings being the way that all intelligent life travels in the universe, duh.) The Two, are hunted down by Doctor Robotnik AKA Doctor Eggman (AKA Jim Carrey) aided by his army of drones, multilevel cars, super-intelligence and sex appeal (I may have made that last part up, but it’s Jim Carrey in a suit and he dances really well in one scene.) Sonic, the (re)animated wonder of the internet, is a loveable protagonist who, as I stated before, is a character that has adapted really well to the big screen. Tom Wachowski, played by James Marsden, is a small-town cop who wants to live his dream of being a city cop even if most of his dreams probably come from his love of 90s action flicks. Yet, the character is stale and boring. But the standout performance is the animated (not that kind of animated) Jim Carrey as Doctor Robotnik AKA Doctor Eggman, who just seems to be having fun with the role. Sadly though I believe his performance doesn’t fit the film, while it’s a delight to watch and you can see him enjoying the character, his ‘cartoony’ performance doesn’t match the tone of the film. This is in no way Carrey’s fault, I can’t see anyone else playing this character, it’s the fact that the film is slow, has no style and has a number of basic continuity issues that were very jarring. But to tear this film apart I think we should start at the beginning. Yes, all the way back to trailer number 1. 

Sonic in the controversial old design from the trailer back in April 2019

For those who missed it, this film originally had a different design for Sonic which caused the internet to literally lose their shit at Sega and anyone involved with this film. The film went away for a while to redesign Sonic and later returned to the praise of the internet for listening. Sadly though a point that’s often missed, is that the animators and team behind the reanimation were underpaid and overworked and ultimately the VFX studio shutdown. I think that while the film was being ‘recooked’ they should have also looked at it as a whole, but they seem to have just fixed the singular problem of Sonic not looking like Sonic. In turn, the film suffers from a few editing issues, mostly related to continuity with the jarring moment coming from shots, seemingly taking place multiple seconds one after the other. For example, there’s a small drone from Dr. Eggman that is slowly removing the roof of the car that Tom and Sonic are in with a laser; in one shot the drone is halfway through the front and then in the next shot, it’s on the driver’s side door. This error was very noticeable to me (obviously as a filmmaker you pick up on these things, however, people I was with didn’t pick up on it until I brought it up.)

Fixing the visual look of the character seems to be the only thing they focused on because while Sonic is fun and so is Dr. Eggman, the film isn’t. It’s a slow drag and fails to grab you at any point throughout its runtime. We have no stakes so I really couldn’t care if Sonic doesn’t get his rings and I couldn’t care less if Eggman gets Sonic, the only reason I care isn’t from anything the film sets up. It’s because I’m a fan of the games. Similar to how Birds of Prey kept me engaged by breaking peoples knees (yes, I’m that easily entertained), Sonic is a fun, exciting character and I think that the kid inside of me is remembering all the ‘Sonic Unleashed’ memories. Fans will get excited to see Sonic on screen, and they should be proud that their character is the best adaptation of a video game character to date. 

While having a slow and boring story, jarring continuity issues and a no stakes, Sonic and Eggman make it fun, most scenes with Carrey are a delight to watch and it’s enjoyable to see my childhood memories on the big screen. I wish I could give it a higher rating but as a film, it’s bad, as a kids film, it’s bad, but as a love letter to Sonic, it’s still pretty bad but at least they made Sonic look like Sonic. 

FADE OUT. 

★★☆☆☆

Release Date (Switzerland): 12.02.20

Release Date (Australia): 13.02.20

Film Data: Director: Jeff Fowler '- Writers: Josh Miller, Patrick Casey, Oren Uziel, Van Robichaux, Evan Susser - Cast: Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Jim Carrey, Tika Sumpter, Lee Majdoub, Frank C. Turner, Adam Pally, Natasha Rothwell - 99’ - USA - 2020 - Paramount - Sega

Photo and Video: © 2020 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

The Gentlemen

INT. GUY RITCHIE AT HIS MOST GUY RITCHIE - DAY

The Gentlemen is a fun, thrilling and mostly enjoyable 2 hours but, it isn’t without its flaws. After all, it is a Guy Ritchie film. The Gentlemen is a current-day view at British gangsters funnily enough run by an American marijuana kingpin, wow, twisty. Let’s start at the beginning, where most of his films are the weakest. In true Ritchie style, it’s a mess because of the non-linear style. 

We don’t necessarily start at the end or in the middle. What we are treated to is Charlie Hunnam and Hugh Grant bantering and narrating the story but mainly Grant flirting with Hunnam. These two are the main source of context in the film. They explain what’s happening while Grant acts as a slight antagonist, however, the line is blurred between the good and the bad at times.

Colin Farell as Coach and Charlie Hunnam as Ray

While this is happening Grant tells the story. In fact, he’s written it as a script and if Charlie doesn’t buy the script off him, he’s gonna sell off the story to Miramax. Yes, Miramax the company making the movie, maybe I forgot to say this film is slightly meta. 

We follow the story along learning that the big boss Matthew McConaughey wants out. He’s built himself an empire from nothing and now he wants to just live a normal life. This news gains the interest of a number of different rival gangs, after all, he’s the biggest drug lord and marijuana is popping, so everyone wants a piece. 

Matthew McConaughey’s character is similar to Daniel Craig’s character in ‘Knives Out’.  However, instead of putting on the accent, Matthew can just use his natural one and it’s already out of place. His accent throws you off at the start but quickly becomes one of the best components of the film, until Colin Farrel enters the film. So you probably don’t know yet, but there’s a little soft spot in my heart for Colin Farrell. When I say little I mean like my whole heart. Especially when he’s also using his normal accent, it gives me In Bruges memories. 

Each character seems to be an archetype; Colin Farrell’s Coach is a tough softie looking out for his kids, Hugh Grant’s Fletcher is a cocky and confident private investigator and, obviously, McConaughey’s Mickey Pearson is the cool, calm and collective drug lord who’s always two steps ahead. While I’m not usually a fan of characters I’ve seen before, this film has such a complex plot, that it would be too difficult for this twisty story to involve twisty characters so this seemed like a necessary evil.

Henry Golding as Dry Eye and Tom Wu as Lord Gerge

Henry Golding as Dry Eye and Tom Wu as Lord Gerge

Looking at The Gentlemen’s filmmaking techniques, it does use a variety of visual cues but again, it’s Guy Ritchie we’re talking about here. The fast and witty script combined with Ritchie’s visual humor style, keeps the audience entertained even during monologues and exposition. It’s the reminders from Fletcher (Hugh Grant) that the whole story hasn’t actually been told yet and that he’s holding it back that entices you. Ritchie wants you to guess and then when you think you know, he pulls the rug from under you. It’s Michelle Dockey’s character Rosalind Pearson, Mickey’s wife, who puts it perfectly: “There’s fuckery afoot.” 

Without getting too much into spoiler territory, the ending is satisfying. Ritchie brings it all together with very little loose ends. It’s not until the last 20 minutes that the confusion stops and you can get a full grasp of everything. I think that this film would have been better when told in order, yet I don’t think anyone else could have pulled off this screenplay than the guy himself, Guy Ritchie, but, that is a benefit of also being the screenwriter and the director I guess. You can do what you want. 

Eddie Marsan as Big Dave, Matthew McConaughey as Micheal Pearson and Charlie Hunnam as Ray

Should you see this film? If you like a crime mystery with a comedic thread holding it together, or if you just want 2 hours of Hugh Grant flirting with Charlie Hunnam, 2 hours of Matthew McConaughey being Matthew McConaughey supreme drug lord and Colin Farrell in a matching jumpsuit, go see this movie.

FADE OUT

★★★☆☆

Swiss Release Date: 27.02.2020

Australian Release Date: 01.01.2020

Film Data: Director: Guy Ritchie - Writers: Guy Ritchie, Marn Davies, Ivan Atkinson - Cast Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell, Charlie Hunnam, Michelle Dockery, Henry Golding, Hugh Grant, Jeremy Strong, Brittany Ashworth, Jason Wong - USA - 102’ - Miramax

Gentlemen - Artwork - ov - 01 Teaser OV_700x1000_4f.jpg