Hello, and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we take you through the biggest new cinema releases and why you should be excited for them. This week: angry Santa, and a couple of actresses direct a couple of much older actresses.
Usual disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, I haven’t seen these movies yet so all of my opinions are based on trailers, early reviews and other rumours and buzz.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
A remake of the 1984 film, Silent Night, Deadly Night follows Billy Chapman (Rohan Campbell) who witnesses his parents get murdered by a man dressed as Santa Claus. Years later, he dons his own Santa suit and axe to pick off the ‘naughty’ people responsible for his family’s deaths.
I haven’t seen the original film but I understand it’s a bit of a cult classic, with a raft of sequels and another remake from 2012 (simply called Silent Night). The trailer makes this one look more like a slasher film than a revenge film, albeit told from the perspective of the crazed killer, but maybe in context it will be a bit easier to sympathise with Billy’s vendetta. The concept of Santa running round with an axe murdering people is innately silly, and director Mike P Nelson has rightly embraced that silliness – but it still needs to function as a revenge movie. It doesn’t look like many of the people he’s taking revenge on are putting up much of a fight, which frames them as victims rather than monsters, and the novelty of the Father Christmas outfit and lines like “have you been a good boy?” will only distract from that for so long.
But there are some interesting ideas in there too. The fact that Billy’s love interest Pamela (Ruby Modine, daughter of Matthew Modine off of Game of Thrones) learns about his axe-wielding antics mid-film and seems to be OK with it sets up an interesting dynamic. And it is getting better reviews than I would have expected, with 82% on Rotten Tomatoes at time of writing.
- Silent Night, Deadly Night on IMDB
- Silent Night, Deadly Night on Rotten Tomatoes
Ella McCay
Ella McCay (played by Emma Mackey, which I’m sure wasn’t confusing at all on set) is a young woman in her mid-30s trying to juggle her ambitious career with her chaotic family – including her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) and dad Eddie (Woody Harrelson). Written and directed by James L Brooks (Terms of Endearment, As Good As It Gets, The Simpsons), the cast also includes Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Rebecca Hall and Marge Simpson herself, Julie Kavner.
It’s an incredibly strong cast and a legendary director, and the trailer has a distinctively quirky vibe that’s hard not to warm to, even if there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of a plot. Which is why it’s a bit of a surprise that it’s been quite badly received by critics, with just 23% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. The consensus seems to be that it is trying to do too many things at once, including a dysfunctional family drama and political satire, but doesn’t impress enough on any of them to stick in the memory. Still, the cast look like they’re having a great time, especially Kavner who seems to be relishing actually being on camera for once.
- Ella McKay on IMDB
- Ella McKay on Rotten Tomatoes
Goodbye June
Tis the season, apparently, for big name Hollywood actresses to make their directorial debuts with films about how elderly women spend their final days of life. The first of this very niche genre this week comes from director Kate Winslet, who also stars as one of four siblings – the others played by Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough and Johnny Flynn – who have to set aside their squabbles and come together to be there for their mother June (Helen Mirren).
This looks very sweet and probably very sad. It’s another incredibly strong cast – Helen Mirren will elevate any cast, but Winslet, Collette, Riseborough and Flynn are great too, and rounded out by the legendary Timothy Spall as June’s husband. The story of a family coming together at Christmas to send off their matriarch is bound to bring out some tears, even if the script is a bit saccharine in places (“Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll come back as snow. Then I’ll see you all at Christmastime”).
If you want to see this on the big screen, catch it quick this weekend before it heads across to Netflix in a couple of weeks.
- Goodbye June on IMDB
- Goodbye June on Rotten Tomatoes
Eleanor the Great
Our second sentimental film about an old lady directed by a Hollywood actress is Eleanor the Great. This time the director is Scarlett Johansson (not starring this time) and the old lady is played by the legendary June Squibb. Squibb plays Eleanor, a nonagenarian who moves to New York when her roommate of 11 years passes away. There, she meets Nina (Erin Kellyman) who is also processing a great loss and asks to feature Eleanor in an article she is writing.
You’ve got to love June Squibb. Despite being a good 15 years older than Helen Mirren, having turned 96 last month, she comes across in this trailer as cheeky, playful and childish – someone who has refused to age gracefully and is all the more fun for it. I get the impression her performance carries the film which, again like Goodbye June, does seem to occasionally veer into oversentimentality. Kellyman – whose face is more recognisable than her name – has been in a lot of good things and is always very likeable, and Chiwetel Ejiofor is also in the cast and looks like he gets some good weepy moments too.
This has almost exactly the same rating on Rotten Tomatoes as Goodbye June. If you like films about old ladies reflecting on their lives then make this a really specific double-bill (bring tissues) and decide for yourself whether Winslet or Johansson has the bigger directing career ahead of them.
- Eleanor the Great on IMDB
- Eleanor the Great on Rotten Tomatoes
Fackham Hall
Co-written by Jimmy Carr, Fackham Hall is a Downton-Abbey/ Poirot send-up about the Davenport family, and the wedding and murder that take place at their stately home.
Offered up as England’s answer to the likes of Naked Gun and Airplane, this is a very, very silly comedy with a similar gag rate to one of Carr’s stand-up shows. When the jokes are being presented that quickly, there will inevitably be some that don’t land so well, but there are plenty of moments in the trailer that had me laughing too. It helps that they’re presented with just the right level of earnestness by a committed cast, including Damien Lewis, Thomasin McKenzie, Katherine Waterston, Tom Felton and Carr himself. It’s very British in terms of both the genres it’s making fun of and the humour it’s using to do it, although the best parodies rely on in-jokes for fans of the parodied, and whether the sort of people who like Downton Abbey are also going to be the sort of people who enjoy fart jokes remains to be seen.
Still, this looks like a lot of fun – if you enjoy Carr’s sense of humour then you’ll definitely love this.
- Fackham Hall on IMDB
- Fackham Hall on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
There’s no clear standout for me this week, so I’m going to go with Eleanor the Great, because June Squibb.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
- Zootropolis 2
- Eternity
Trailer of the Week
Ever since she crashed into the post-credits scene of the new Superman, we’ve been looking forward to Milly Alcock’s feature-length take on his cousin Supergirl. Now we have the first teaser trailer and it looks great – more Krypto the Superdog, more Kara Zor-El going on some cosmic benders, and our first glimpse of Jason Momoa’s return to the DC universe as bounty hunter Lobo, all set to Blondie’s Call Me. It’s a fairly brief trailer, but it’s enough to show that this will have a much more anarchic vibe than we got in Superman – if Supes was DC’s answer to the MCU’s Captain America, this feels closer to Guardians of the Galaxy. Supergirl will be flying to screens on 26 June next year.
Leave a Reply