Hello, and welcome to the first Film Roundup after our January break! Once again, we’ll be running through the biggest new cinema releases of the week and why you should get excited for them.
Usual disclaimer applies to the other film, which I haven’t seen yet: all of my opinions about We Live In Time are based on trailers, early reviews and other rumours and buzz.
Love Hurts
Ke Huy Quan’s comeback continues in Love Hurts. Following his Oscar-winning return to our screens in Everything Everywhere All At Once and his scene-stealing turn in season 2 of Loki, this looks to be a combination of both those performances – Waymond’s frenetic martial arts skills mixed with OB’s affable charm. In this film he plays a real estate agent whose dark past catches up with him when agents of his crime-lord brother (Daniel Wu) show up looking for the girl he helped escape from their organisation (Ariana DeBose).
This is director Jonathan Eusebio’s debut, having previously worked as a stunt coordinator or fight coordinator on the likes of The Fall Guy, Black Panther and John Wick, and it’s clear that he’s brought that experience to bear here. The action scenes look inventive and exciting, with plenty of opportunities for humour amid the carnage. Ariana DeBose is great as well – there might have been a lot of films of this ilk before, but very few of them can boast two Oscar winning actors in their lead roles. It’s not clear whether there’s meant to be a romantic connection between Quan and DeBose, but the title and marketing are clearly pushing the love angle enough to make this feel like an ideal date movie for Valentine’s Day next week. Whether that works or not is down to you and your partner’s definition of romance, but in any event this should be a very entertaining film. It even has a mini Goonies reunion, with Sean Astin in the supporting cast.
- Love Hurts on IMDB
- Love Hurts on Rotten Tomatoes
September 5
Set during the 1972 Munich Olympics, this film tells the story of the ABC network’s sports newscasters as they suddenly find themselves covering a hostage crisis when the Black September Organisation attacked the Israeli athletes.
I saw a preview of this earlier in the week and was very impressed. It felt like a combination of Argo and Spotlight, capturing the tension of the former and the journalistic excitement of the latter. We see very little of the crisis itself, which is an effective approach – it turns what could have been just another film about a group of bad guys committing an act of terrorism into something that feels historically significant and important. Seeing the events unfold through the eyes of a news team makes it feel like watching the news itself, as if we’re digesting it alongside current events. The fact that the news in recent years has once again been dominated by tragedies coming out of the Israel-Palestine conflict only adds to that sensation.
I’m not too familiar with the cast but they all did great. Most of the focus is on John Magaro’s Geoffrey Mason, an inexperienced news director trying to maintain control of the situation. Peter Sarsgaard’s Boone Arledge spends most of the movie on the phone to studio executives trying to persuade them to give him airtime, while Ben Chaplin’s Marvin Bader tries to strike a balance between the journalist’s (sometimes competing) duties to report what is happening and to protect the people it’s happening to. That theme makes for some of the film’s most compelling scenes, as the news team realise that their audience includes both the terrorists and the victims’ families – people whose lives could be significantly impacted by the decisions they make around what to show. The standout performance though is German actress Leonie Benesch, whose interpreter Marianne is gradually roped into increasingly dangerous and challenging roles, a victim of her own competence.
This has deservedly been nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Even though it’s probably the underdog in an incredibly strong field – this is its only nomination, while its competitors (Anora, the Brutalist, A Real Pain and The Substance) have 23 between them – it still feels like it’s in with a shot. I can’t recommend it enough.
- September 5 on IMDB
- September 5 on Rotten Tomatoes
Dog Man
Based on the children’s books by Dav Pilkey, Dog Man tells the story of a hero cop who is, as the title suggests, half dog and half man. After a tragic accident and a surprisingly consensual operation sees a police dog’s head grafted onto the body of his owner, Dog Man becomes greater than the sum of his parts, using his “kung fu skills, canine fortitude and whatnot” to take out the bad guys. The big baddie here is, of course, a villainous cat named Petey (Pete Davidson).
This is a silly concept with more promise than you might give it credit for. The animation nicely captures the art style of the books, but also brings in the inventiveness of modern hits like the Spider-verse films, the Mitchells Vs the Machines and Turning Red to push the possibilities that the animated medium can have over live action. For example, points made in the dialogue are emphasised by the appearance of large, comic book-style text, which the characters can then interact with as if it’s physically present in the world of the film. It also has some nice visual gags (essential to a film where the protagonist is a dog who can’t talk, as any Wallace & Gromit fan will attest) – my favourite being that the police chief (Lil Rey Howery) has a nameplate on his desk that reads ‘Chief’ on the side facing outwards but ‘You da boss’ on the side that faces him. Although the franticness and bright colours of the animation will appeal to little kids who are clearly the target audience, there should be a lot to enjoy for the parents accompanying them.
- Dog Man on IMDB
- Dog Man on Rotten Tomatoes
Bring Them Down
I hadn’t heard much about this film before today, but having now watched the trailer I can’t wait to see it. Set in rural Ireland, this tells the story of rival shepherding families embroiled in an escalating cycle of revenge after the theft of some prize rams.
There are parallels here with the Banshees of Inisherin, which also featured some needlessly violent Irishmen falling out over the fate of farm animals, and saw Barry Keoghan (who has a leading role here) earn his first Oscar nomination. But where that film was full of dark humour, this feels much more serious in tone. Everything from the dark, muted colour palette to the believable violence has been dialled to grim and gritty. It will almost certainly make for a less fun film, but you can still count on some strong performances and tense drama.
- Bring Them Down on IMDB
- Bring Them Down on Rotten Tomatoes
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
One of the contenders for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars, the Seed of the Sacred Fig tells the story of Iman, a civil servant in Tehran who is promoted to the role of investigating judge and charged with sentencing protestors against the country’s strict political regime. This brings him into conflict with his idealistic daughters, which comes to a head when the loaded gun he’s been given for protection goes missing.
The story of how this got made is quite incredible. Director Mohammad Rasoulof filmed the entire movie (almost three hours long) in secret on location in Tehran, using funding from France and Germany, because it was deemed illegal by the Iranian government. When it was announced, with the premiere scheduled for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Rasoulof was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison, a fine and a flogging. Managing to escape the country before the sentence could be carried out, together with several other members of the film’s cast and crew he made it to the premiere where he held photos of the two leads, Missagh Zareh and Soheila Golestani, who hadn’t been able to leave Iran. The film became Germany’s official submission to the Academy.
The plot of the film plays out against the same politically charged backdrop, with protests and police brutality being a key driving force behind the drama. The consensus of the reviews I’ve read seems to be that as well as being an important film with a powerful political message, this is also an intense and gripping thriller in its own right. The tension ratchets up in the second half and culminates in a dramatic finale. It currently has a 96% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a slightly lower 87% audience rating, with some people feeling that the conclusion came from too far out of left field.
Usually if one of the contenders for International Feature Film is also up for Best Film, it’s almost guaranteed to win International Feature Film. This year, there are two films nominated for both categories (Emilia Perez and I’m Still Here) while a third entry (Flow) is also competing for Best Animated Feature. All of which probably suggests that this film won’t win. But as a feat of filmmaking in the face of adversity, with a level of quality that matches its moral worthiness, it certainly deserves to be in the conversation.
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig on IMDB
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Lots of strong entries this week, but I am happy to vouch for the gripping drama that is September 5.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Companion
- The Brutalist – A long but rewarding watch, this three and a half hour epic about a Jewish architect trying to overcome prejudice and greed in post-war America has been nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Film. The cinematography is stunning, the acting is compelling, the music is soaring and the writing is beautiful. Well worth the investment of time (and if you need it, there’s a 15 minute interval in the middle).
- A Complete Unknown – Timothee Chalamet does an incredible job at capturing Bob Dylan’s mannerisms and vocal performances in this biopic about the singer’s switch from traditional folk music to electric guitars. Monica Barbaro pulls an equally impressive turn – both in her acting and her vocals – as Dylan’s on-off partner Joan Baez, and you’ll spend the entire movie wishing you were friends with Ed Norton’s Pete Seeger. Whether you like Dylan’s music or not, this is a great film and another one with a brace of Oscar nominations that will no doubt translate to some wins next month.
Trailer of the week
It’s been a great week for trailers, with Jurassic World: Rebirth, M3GAN 2 and Final Destination: Bloodlines all giving us a taste of the blockbusters coming this summer. But, with Captain America swooping into cinemas next month, the Trailer of the Week has to go to our first glimpse at the third attempt to bring Marvel’s first family to the big screen. The Fantastic Four: First Steps teaser sees Mr Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), the Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) finally joining the MCU to face off against Galactus (Ralph Ineson). It’s a great cast, and fans of The Bear will be pleased to see that Moss-Bachrach has brought his culinary expertise with him. The retro ’60s vibe gives this a really unique tone that stands out against the other Marvel entries – it takes place in an alternate universe, so it will be interesting to see how it connects to the wider MCU. This should have no trouble clearing the very low bar for Fantastic Four movies, but it will have a harder time clearing the sky-high expectations of the comic fans…
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