It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we take you through the upcoming cinema releases and some reasons to get excited for them. This week is ruled by an army of CGI apes, but if you don’t want to take them on there is plenty of indie fare courtesy of the Flatpack Film Festival…
Usual disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, I haven’t seen these films. All of my opinions are based on trailers, early reviews and other rumours and buzz.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
The only major release this week is one that I’ve been looking forward to for a while. Set around 300 years after the events of the Rise/Dawn/War trilogy, the planet is now entirely under ape control, with the human race reduced to herds of wild animals that are hunted for sport. A young chimp named Noa (Owen Teague) goes on a journey to rescue his tribe after they are abducted by a more powerful community led by the bonobo king Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). On the way, he encounters an unusually intelligent human girl named Mae (Freya Allen) who is also being hunted by the apes.
The earlier Andy Serkis-led trilogy, which ran from 2011 to 2017, still holds up as one of the best blockbuster series of the last couple of decades. Each film combined exciting action set-pieces and cutting-edge special effects with layered storytelling and complex characters. Caesar’s first word – a defiant “NO!” screamed at Tom Felton’s abusive Dodge Landon – sends shivers down the spine every time I see it. In Rise Serkis continued to prove (following his Gollum and King Kong) that, even when wearing a blue onesie covered in ping pong balls while a computer paints over everything that you’re doing, you can still turn in a powerful and emotional performance. And as the ape cast expanded in Dawn and War, a host of other great, but not A-list, actors (including Toby Kebbell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Judy Greer, Steve Zahn) stepped up to follow his example.
Despite the lack of the Mo-cap Master, Kingdom looks set to continue with that tradition. Noa is played by Owen Teague, whose biggest film role to date is probably the two It movies (where he played bully Patrick Hockstetter). Proximus Caesar is played by Kevin Durand, who has been in many films (most recently Abigail) and TV shows but rarely gets a lead part. He’s an underrated character actor but also has the physicality to make a role like this work well. Following the success of The Witcher, the most recognisable face in the cast is probably Freya Allen, who’s had a lot of experience at playing a mysterious girl being protected by a more physically capable warrior while they are hunted by a powerful ruler.
Any budget saved on star power will have gone into the visual effects, and judging by the footage in the trailer, it shows. The quality of the CGI has come on leaps and bounds from Rise, which was already pretty incredible. There is no uncanny valley here – every matted hair and every subtle facial twitch is perfectly rendered and totally believable. This will absolutely be worth seeing in IMAX to fully appreciate the amount of work that’s gone into every pixel.
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes on IMDB
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes on Rotten Tomatoes
Flatpack Film Festival
Birmingham’s biggest independent film festival is back, running from the 10th to the 19th of May in venues across the city. Flatpack have put together a great programme this year, screening everything from brand new shorts to classic feature films, timely documentaries to surreal works of fiction, and local productions to international efforts. There really is something for everyone and I would encourage anybody living in the area to check out the full schedule, but I’ll try and pick out a few highlights…
Among the feature films, there is a double-bill of Kevin Smith comedy Chasing Amy and documentary Chasing Chasing Amy, which examines the film’s role in the history of queer cinema and should be a fascinating watch whether you’re a long-time fan of the film or seeing it for the first time. On 14th of May is a screening of the incredibly creepy looking horror film Stopmotion, which has not had a major cinema release in this country and is a must see for fans of being frightened (or if you prefer the classics, Carrie is also screening at the Botanical Gardens on 17th of May). On 12th of May, the Mockingbird is hosting a marathon of Richard Linklater’s beautiful Before… trilogy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight), charting the highs and lows of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy’s relationship over the course of three days, each around nine years apart. And on 16th of May, Flatpack is screening an early preview of Korean horror-thriller Sleep, starring Parasite’s Lee Sun-kyun in his last ever film role, which you can see a full two months before its official UK release date.
If you fancy something a bit more unusual, Flatpack has you more than covered there too. Kicking the festival off is an audiovisual experience by People Like Us and The Light Surgeons, each editing together collages of film clips and music to transport you on a dreamlike experience that promises to showcase the power cinema can have over our subconscious. On 15th of May, South Asian Solarpunk explores the art of Birmingham-born Seema Mattu, whose work delves into British South-Asian culture through the Solarpunk genre. The following day, the Exchange on Broad Street hosts a series of interactive exhibitions, short films and live performances themed around AI and the benefits and dangers it brings to modern creativity, titled Minds & Machines. And for animation fans, on 17th of May you can watch a collection of Ukrainian animation going back to the 1960s, accompanied by live music from the Potreba Group, in Resonance of Time at the Printmakers Arms.
Alongside all of this, running throughout the festival are a range of short film collections, each collated around different themes and culminating in an awards ceremony on the 18th of May. Shorts are a great way to encourage new and local talent to come up with something completely original and off-the-wall, so take a look at the shorts programme, pick a theme that takes your fancy, and prepare to be surprised and delighted. You might even be inspired to pick up a camera and enter something for next year’s festival.
If you only see one film this week…
Even if it wasn’t the only major film out this week, my pick would probably still have been Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- The Fall Guy
- Love Lies Bleeding
- Challengers
Trailer of the week
It doesn’t give much away, but the new teaser for Megalopolis is an intriguing first look at Francis Ford Coppola’s labour of love.
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