Hello and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we run through the biggest new cinema releases and why you should be excited for them. This week: ice cream and death.
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.
Ice Cream Man
Did you watch that one scene with the kids at the end of Weapons and think “This is great – I wish it was more violent and lasted for an hour and a half”? Eli Roth did. Ice Cream Man follows the titular confectioner (Ari Millen) as he serves his soft scoop to the boys and girls of an idyllic American town. It’s all very picturesque and pleasant until it becomes apparent that this particular ice cream transforms children into evil little murderers. Soon almost all of the town’s pre-pubescent population is running round causing chaos, and it’s up to the handful of unaffected children to figure out how to save both their own skins and their friends’ souls.
Eli Roth’s last film was Borderlands – a big budget blockbuster adaptation of a beloved franchise that was a massive critical and commercial failure. Making just over $33 million worldwide on an estimated $115 million budget, he’s pretty lucky that they still let him into film studios. Ice Cream Man brings him back to the schlocky low budget horror gore-fests that he’s known for, and within that sub-genre it’s a fun concept. Creepy kids, or even violent ones, are nothing new to cinema – see the Omen, the Exorcist, Children of the Corn, Let the Right One In and Abigail to name a few – but I can’t think of many films where they are quite this ubiquitous or over-the-top. The fact that their faces are smeared with colourful sugar is both instantly familiar to anyone who’s seen a small child eat ice cream and disgustingly monstrous.
Will Roth take the opportunity to make an insightful, layered movie that capitalises on societal fears about the ever-widening generational gap? Or will he go all out finding excuses to up the ante on extreme violence and shock factor? The red band trailer, the critical response (27% on Rotten Tomatoes), and Roth’s track record suggest the latter, but you never know. Either way, I just hope it doesn’t put Cineworld off the idea of finding a new ice cream supplier (RIP Baskin Robbins)…
- Ice Cream Man on IMDB
- Ice Cream Man on Rotten Tomatoes
The Summer Book
On a secluded Finnish island, a young girl (Emily Matthews) bonds with her grandmother (Glenn Close) as they mourn the death of her mother. Meanwhile, her father (Anders Danielsen Lie) grieves in his own way.
If Ice Cream Man is all about the extreme breakdown of relationships between children and the older generations, The Summer Book is the exact opposite. One of the critics’ quotes compares it favourably to the work of Miyazaki, which is fitting given that this is based on a novel by Tove Jansson, creator of Sweden’s answer to Miyazaki, the Moomins. Even from the trailer, it’s easy to see the comparison: there are some beautiful shots of the stunning Scandinavian landscape and seas, a marked respect for cultural tradition (the characters celebrate Midsommar), and at the centre of it all a young girl trying to understand her place in the world.
Overall this looks moving, sedately-paced and very sweet. It also has a safe pair of hands with Glenn Close, even if she’s putting on a slightly distracting accent.
- The Summer Book on IMDB
- The Summer Book on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
They’re two very different films this week, and you’ve probably already decided which one appeals to you most. But based on the reviews, filmmaking quality, and sheer resentment that I still can’t buy an ice cream at Cineworld at the moment, I’m going with the Summer Book.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day – Nonchalantly thwipping a web at any talk of superhero fatigue, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has smashed the record for highest opening weekend box office takings (previously held by Avengers: Endgame) and has already made over a billion dollars worldwide. It’s a lot of fun, as any Spider-Man movie should be, but also has tons of heart. Reckoning with both the isolating effects of Doctor Strange’s spell and a major character death in the last movie, Peter Parker has never been lonelier, and Tom Holland does a great job of showing how much he’s matured as an actor since Tony Stark enlisted him to fight Captain America way back in Civil War 10 years ago. He’s up against a threat that I’m not going to spoil here, but provides a nice final act parallel to Peter’s journey. Special mention goes to Jon Bernthal, whose Punisher is somehow both the most serious and funniest character in the film. If you’re a Spidey fan then you’ve probably already seen it by the time you read this, but if you haven’t then it’s well worth catching on the big screen.
- The Odyssey
- Toy Story 5
Trailer of the Week
There have been a few fun trailers this week, but I’m going with the daftest looking one. In Wicker, Olivia Coleman plays a lonely fisherwoman who’s grown fed up of her malodorous profession putting off potential husbands. So she asks Peter Dinklage to make her a husband, which he does – out of wicker. The resulting woven hubby (played by Alexander Skarsgård) is surprisingly successful, and his odd appearance, coupled with the couple’s bedroom antics (don’t watch this trailer at work), quickly bring out the townspeople’s prejudices and resentment. With a cast that also includes Elizabeth Debicki, Richard E Grant, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Nabhaan Rizwan, this looks wonderfully ridiculous and will probably have audiences looking at their garden furniture and picnic baskets in a very strange way. Wicker wends its way to our screens in October.
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