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, everyone’s invited to the party with Father Mother Sister Brother, You, Me & Tuscany, plus James McAvoy’s directorial debut.
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.
You, Me & Tuscany
When Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor) tries to impress Anna (Halle Bailey) by boasting in a bar about his enormous villa standing empty in the Tuscan countryside, she resolves to pay it a visit and crash there for a cheap holiday. But she finds herself having to pretend to be his fiancée when Matteo’s family turn up unexpectedly and catch her trying on his engagement ring. Things get even more complicated when she starts to fall for Michael (Regé-Jean Page), who the family ask to show her around the vineyard. Will Anna find the right moment to come clean before she’s in too deep?
This is a tried-and-tested formula for romantic comedies – take two attractive leads, drop them in a beautiful location, and manufacture a scenario where they can’t help but fall in love. Bailey and Page certainly fit the bill, and seem to have a great chemistry from the trailer, but the real star here is Tuscany itself – it’s hard not to be blown away by the gorgeous landscapes and distinctly Italian architecture (and cars) forming the backdrop to the drama.
This is the sort of film that you will immediately know from watching the trailer whether you will like it or not. It won’t do anything particularly new or original, but what it does it will do well. Definitely one to watch if you’re a fan of films like Mamma Mia, or if you’re just planning a trip to Italy.
- You, Me & Tuscany on IMDB
- You, Me & Tuscany on Rotten Tomatoes
California Schemin’
Based on a true story, California Schemin’ follows Scottish rappers Billy (Samuel Bottomley) and Gavin (Seamus McLean Ross), who are struggling to find fame with their hip hop act. Realising that it was their own image that people weren’t taking seriously, they decide to pretend to be American, rebranding themselves with California accents and trendy new hairstyles. The lie works and they secure a record deal, but as their success builds it becomes harder to maintain and puts pressure on their relationships with their loved ones and with each other. How long can they live the dream before it all comes crashing down?
This is James McAvoy’s directorial debut, with the actor also appearing in front of the camera as an intimidating record producer, and it looks like he’s done a great job (albeit helped by a fantastically ridiculous subject matter). The music scenes have real energy and he’s coaxed some solid performances out of a relatively unknown lead cast. Convincingly playing a professional rapper must be hard enough, but playing a Scottish rapper putting on an American accent is all kinds of challenging.
California Schemin’ reminds me a lot of the 2024 film Kneecap – another biopic of real rappers that used their story to have a conversation about the importance of staying true to yourself and your national identity. Whether this will be quite as powerful as Kneecap remains to be seen, but it looks like a lot of fun.
- California Schemin’ on IMDB
- California Schemin’ on Rotten Tomatoes
Father Mother Sister Brother
Directed by Jim Jarmusch, Father Mother Sister Brother is a triptych of stories about adult children connecting with their parents and with each other. It explores how well we can really know our parents and finds comedy in the mundanity of the family dynamic.
Jarmusch is a great indie director and has assembled a strong cast for this one, including Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat. The triptych format combined with some very gentle pacing makes it difficult to get too invested in any one story, which seems to have put some audiences off – this has an audience rating of 51% on Rotten Tomatoes. But critics have loved it, giving it a much more respectable score of 83%.
This looks very sweet, and any films with Tom Waits in are likely to be a delight. It should be well worth catching, especially for indie fans.
- Father Mother Sister Brother on IMDB
- Father Mother Sister Brother on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Hard to pick a standout this week, but I think I’m going for James McAvoy’s California Schemin’.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- The Drama – A big part of the marketing for this film was the secrecy around what Zendaya’s character Emma could possibly reveal as the worst thing she’s ever done that would spin the whole film into such chaos, and without giving away any spoilers it absolutely lived up to that promise. What follows is a fantastic character study of how different people cope with the kind of revelation that makes them re-evaluate everything they knew about a loved one. It’s pretty funny in places and painfully awkward in others, and all anchored by typically strong performances from Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. Well worth a watch.
- Project Hail Mary
- Hoppers
Trailer of the Week
After making a surprise return in season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again and recently appearing in the trailer for the next Spider-Man film, Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, is now officially part of the Disney MCU canon. And with season 2 of Daredevil now in full swing, Marvel and Disney+ have just released a trailer for The Punisher: One Last Kill, which puts Frank back in the spotlight for his own show. Billed as ‘a Marvel Television Special Presentation’, it looks like this will just be a single episode rather than a full series or limited run, which sees an unexpected force pull the Punisher back into the fight as he searches for meaning beyond revenge. Bernthal has been playing Castle for around a decade now, and the fact that he has a writing credit on this (his first) shows how well he has come to know the character in that time. It’s not clear yet whether or how this will fit into the wider MCU continuity, but it looks as moody and brutal as you would expect for a Punisher vehicle. One Last Kill will hit Disney+ in May.
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