Hello, and welcome to the Geeky Brummie film roundup, taking you through this week’s upcoming cinema releases. Today we have an assortment of entertainment, including some very passionate tennis and a very violent mute.
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.
Challengers
In Challengers, a young tennis prodigy named Tashi (Zendaya) suffers an injury and is forced to turn to coaching, with her biggest client being her husband Art (Mike Faist). Her plans for bringing him into the big leagues are complicated however, when he has to play against his best friend and her ex boyfriend, Patrick (Josh O’Connor). As Art and Patrick’s rivalry intensifies, it becomes clear that they are competing for more than just a tennis match.
Although it’s ostensibly a tennis film, the sport here is clearly a metaphor and a vehicle for the relationships between the three central characters. This promises to be an erotically charged film about sexy young people obsessing over (tennis and) each other. Zendaya’s film career to date has largely involved playing the love interest role to a more powerful lead (whether that’s Peter Parker, Paul Atreides or, um, Bugs Bunny…). Although Challengers again focuses on her romantic entanglements, she is the one with all the power here, playing the two men off against each other while they push themselves to extremes to please her. It looks like a great performance and hopefully will help cement more leading roles for her in the future.
There are some good names behind the camera too. The director, Luca Guadagnino, used a similarly sexual atmosphere to great effect in Call Me By Your Name and Suspiria. The soundtrack is by Nine Inch Nails artists Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who won Oscars for their scores to the Social Network and Soul.
The reviews for this have been universally positive and I expect it will do very well at the box office too.
- Challengers on IMDB
- Challengers on Rotten Tomatoes
Boy Kills World
Boy Kills World tells the story of a young boy who is left deaf and mute when his family are murdered by a criminal organisation, growing up and seeking revenge after being trained by a mysterious shaman. On the synopsis alone, this sounds a lot like the recent Dev Patel film Monkey Man (they even both have Sharlto Copley in a minor role), but a quick glance at the trailer and artwork and it’s clear that the two films are tonally very different. Where Monkey Man was sincere and serious, this looks absolutely nuts (in the best possible way).
The boy is played by Bill Skarsgård. Historically, Bill tends to get the weird guy roles – see also It, Barbarian, Eternals and the upcoming remake of The Crow – while the action hero roles more commonly go to his brother Alexander (Legend of Tarzan, The Northman). But here it seems he is leaping feet first into the action hero mould, and it certainly looks like he’s having a great time with it. The biggest selling point in the cast to me though is the fact that his inner monologue is voiced by Archer’s H Jon Benjamin, which is perfect casting for a highly effective but slightly immature killer. The crime boss that he is facing up against is Famke Janssen’s Hilda Van Der Koy – I still can’t see Janssen as anything other than Jean Grey, but it’s good to see her on screen again.
The contrast between this and Monkey Man makes a lot more sense when you consider their producers. Monkey Man was produced by Jordan Peele, who is a great comic actor but as a filmmaker favours movies that underpin their violence and horror with symbolism, depth and meaning. Boy Kills World on the other hand is produced by Sam Raimi, who favours movies that underpin their violence with a knowing look to the camera and the word “Groovy”.
Basically, this looks like great, over the top, utterly bonkers fun.
- Boy Kills World on IMDB
- Boy Kills World on Rotten Tomatoes
Ordinary Angels
At the opposite end of pretty much any scale that you’d care to place them on from Boy Kills World, next up we have Ordinary Angels. Hilary Swank plays Sharon, an alcoholic hairdresser who sets out to save a local girl who is dying from the disease that killed her mother. This is based on a true story, and the trailer makes a point of saying that it comes from the makers of Wonder, Jesus Revolution and I Can Only Imagine – depending on your view of Christian films that will either fill you with joy or ring some loud alarm bells.
The plot is the sort of thing that can make for great cinema – an ordinary person going out of her way to save the life of a little girl. Tonally though it looks a little saccharine and preachy for my taste. Clearly people have been enjoying it – it’s currently sitting at a very impressive 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, albeit that’s so far exclusively from an American audience who tend to eat this sort of thing up. Watch the trailer, and if it looks like the sort of thing that you’d enjoy then I’m sure you’ll find it heartwarming and inspirational.
- Ordinary Angels on IMDB
- Ordinary Angels on Rotten Tomatoes
I.S.S.
I.S.S. follows a group of American and Russian astronauts on the International Space Station, which famously requires its occupants to set aside their Earth-based politics in the interests of scientific discovery for all mankind. One day they are looking out the window and see an explosion in North America – Russia and the USA have declared war and the nukes are flying across huge swathes of the planet. Both groups receive orders from their commanders on the ground to take control of the space station by any means necessary.
That sounds like an incredible set-up, but sadly the early reviews have not been kind. What could have been a tense and thrilling exploration of conflicting loyalties in a claustrophobic and inhospitable environment instead devolves into a fairly generic and predictable action film. Still, you can’t go far wrong with an action film in space where literal armageddon is unfolding in the background, and it has Ariana DeBose in the cast who is always very watchable. As long as your expectations aren’t too high when you buy a ticket you could have a fun time with this – maybe if it does well enough it might get a remake by someone who better knows what to do with it…
- I.S.S. on IMDB
- I.S.S. on Rotten Tomatoes
Spy x Family Code: White
Based on the Spy x Family anime series in which, as part of his cover, a spy marries a woman and adopts a little girl who each have their own secret lives, Code: White is about the family going on their first holiday together. According to the trailer, somewhere along the way they get embroiled in the outbreak of a war, with the fate of the world in the balance. According to the official synopsis, Loid helps Anya win a cooking contest.
Films based on popular anime tend to play out like a big feature length episode of the TV show. Fans of the TV show will therefore love this – it’s got good ratings on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, so clearly has gone down well so far. On the other hand, also like any film based on a popular anime, if you’re not familiar with the TV show I wouldn’t recommend making this your introduction to its world. Season 1 is available on Netflix so give it a watch there first if you’re interested. I must admit it’s not one that I’ve watched before, but it looks like fun and has some appealing character design and catchy music.
- Spy x Family Code: White on IMDB
- Spy x Family Code: White on Rotten Tomatoes
The American Society of Magical Negroes
Like I.S.S., this is another one with an intriguing concept that doesn’t sound like it’s landed very well. Justice Smith plays Aren, a quiet young man who is adopted into the American Society of Magical Negroes – a secret organisation of Black people with magical powers dedicated to making white people’s lives easier. The idea being that a calm and happy white person is less likely to act violently towards Black people. Aren is assigned to look after a co-worker but falls in love with the girl he is meant to be setting him up with – can he, and should he, set his personal feelings aside in favour of keeping his charge happy?
The concept, and the title, of this film promise some biting satire about unconscious biases, the way Black people are expected to act around white people and the way some white people act when they don’t. But the reviews suggest that it doesn’t lean heavily enough into the satire for it to be effective, or explore the magic of the titular Society in any satisfying depth. Instead, too much time is given to the romance sub-plot, which isn’t really what the audiences came to see. I like Justice Smith, but at the time of writing this has 2.8 on IMDB and a 27% critics rating (but 63% audience rating) on Rotten Tomatoes, which suggests he isn’t good enough to rescue the film.
- The American Society of Magical Negroes on IMDB
- The American Society of Magical Negroes on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Boy Kills World looks like heaps of fun, but I think I’m leaning towards Challengers for my film of the week.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Abigail
- Civil War
- Monkey Man
Trailer of the week
This week has seen the release of the first full trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine, dragging the Merc With A Mouth and the X-Men into the MCU (via what appears to be the skull of a giant dead Ant-Man – hopefully in another reality!). If Boy Kills World whets your appetite for some crazy fight scenes featuring one of the original X-Men cast, this promises more of the same. It’s also the only Marvel film we’re getting this year (not counting the Sony Spider-spin-offs, which of course you absolutely shouldn’t).
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