Hi, welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup – taking you through the week’s new cinema releases and why you should be excited for them. This week we have fun with our spouses, take a nice diving trip and see a celebrity – what could possibly go wrong?
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.
Black Bag
In this latest thriller from Steven Soderbergh, Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett star as husband and wife spies George and Kathryn. When a mole is suspected in the agency George is tasked with rooting them out, but Kathryn’s name is on the list of suspects. In a profession where everyone is trained to lie convincingly and expected to put their duty before any personal ties, can George find the mole and save the world without ruining his marriage?
Fassbender and Blanchett are both fantastic actors and generally the sign of a good movie (as long as it’s not a videogame adaptation…). They are cool and stylish enough to convince as secret agents in the James Bond mould – a connection that is strengthened by the additional casting of former Bond and Moneypenny Pierce Brosnan and Naomie Harris. But this appears to be more of a tense thriller than an action blockbuster – very much stirred, not shaken – which better fits Soderbergh’s slick style. Expect lots of twists and turns and expect to trust precisely nobody.
The difficulty with talking about films with lots of twists in is that the trailers don’t tend to give much away, so it’s hard to discuss this without having seen it yet. But it looks intriguing and entertaining, and the two leads are more than enough to justify the film ticket.
- Black Bag on IMDB
- Black Bag on Rotten Tomatoes
Last Breath
Based on a true story, Last Breath recounts how a group of divers and ship crew battled the elements to rescue a fellow diver trapped hundreds of feet below the surface when his umbilical line snapped.
The idea of being stuck underwater is an utterly terrifying concept that has been mined effectively many times before at the cinema. Everyone who has so much as submerged their head in a swimming pool can imagine what that would be like and will be immediately glad that they’re not in that position. It’s impossible not to sympathise with Chris (Finn Cole) when he drifts into the deep. The fact that this is a true story will only make it all the more effective. Director Alex Parkinson previously made a 2019 documentary with the same name about the real event, so he should have an intimate knowledge of how it all went down – it will be interesting to see how that comes through to this dramatisation.
Among the crew determined to bring Chris back to terra firma are Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Mark Bonnar and Cliff Curtis (a man who is to the ocean what Dwayne Johnson is to the jungle). I deliberately haven’t looked up the story this is based on to find out whether they succeed, but it should be an exciting experience watching them get to that point. I’m not expecting anything desperately original here – a lot of the plot beats we see in the trailer are definitely familiar ones from other survival films (case in point: “We’re gonna be too late – it’s a body recovery now.” “No it’s not. I’m not losing a diver today”) but if you enjoy this sort of movie then this has a solid enough cast that you should have a good time with it.
- Last Breath on IMDB
- Last Breath on Rotten Tomatoes
In the Lost Lands
Based on a short story by George R.R. Martin, In The Lost Lands is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where a queen sends a sorceress in search of a great power. To survive in the Lost Lands, she and her guide must outfight and outwit both man and demon.
I am a big fan of the Game of Thrones series, so I have mixed feelings about this – on the one hand I’ll happily take any George R.R. Martin content I can get, but on the other hand I feel like anything that distracts him from finishing the last TWO Song of Ice & Fire books should be actively discouraged. It’s like a kid cleaning his room to get out of doing his homework – I’m glad he’s doing it, but I’d rather he gets on with the other thing. I could forgive him if this was a worthy use of his time, but by all accounts it’s not.
This is directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, director of the Resident Evil series and Monster Hunter adaptation, and stars his wife and regular collaborator Milla Jovovich (playing the sorceress Gray Alys) alongside Dave Bautista (as her guide Boyce). Anderson’s films, especially the Resident Evil ones, have a bit of a cult following among my generation in particular, but aren’t particularly well regarded for their filmmaking. This looks like a lot of over-the-top CGI fight scenes strung together with a slightly silly fantasy plot, which can be great fun if the writing embraces the silliness, but it seems to be taking itself a bit too seriously here for it to work. The visual style reminds me a little of Zach Snyder’s Rebel Moon films, which is not a good thing.
At the time of writing this has 24% on Rotten Tomatoes (with a slightly better 46% audience score), and 5/10 stars on IMDB – there are worse films, but I wouldn’t go into this expecting to be blown away. On the positive side, it is a rare standalone fantasy film that isn’t riding the coattails of an established movie franchise – if you’re in the mood for switching your brain off and watching Drax the Destroyer launch a ballistic two-headed snake at a guy dressed as a knight templar, this is the only film that will scratch that weirdly specific itch this week.
- In the Lost Lands on IMDB
- In the Lost Lands on Rotten Tomatoes
Opus
Writer Ariel (Ayo Edebiri) is invited to the mansion of reclusive musician Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich) years after he disappeared from the public eye, ostensibly to see the masterpiece that he’s been working on. Surrounded by sycophants and strangers, she starts to realise there may be more going on than she was led to believe.
There’s been no shortage of films recently where normal people are invited into the world of an eccentric rich person and end up regretting it. The Menu, Blink Twice and to an extent Glass Onion have all been built around a similar idea. But I can’t think of many people who would play the role of enigmatic millionaire cult-leader better than John Malkovich. If you’d told me the filmmakers had just filmed him pottering about his house on a normal Tuesday and built the rest of the film around that, I wouldn’t have been surprised. Ayo Edebiri is very well-cast as well – she’s got her “I don’t want to be rude but did you really just say that?!” face locked down, and she’ll make a good everyman for the audience to root for while the world around her gets weirder. It’s great to see her fantastic work on The Bear leading to some big screen roles.
The film looks creepy and nuts, and even though there are some similar set-ups out there I’m still intrigued to see where this one takes it.
- Opus on IMDB
- Opus on Rotten Tomatoes
Sister Midnight
Finally this week we have Sister Midnight. After she is forced into a mismatched arranged marriage and finding herself entirely unsuited to domesticated life, new bride Uma (Radhika Apte) discovers and embraces her more feral side.
The trailer and official synopsis are very light on plot detail, but in its art and its humour this looks like the answer to the question: What if Wes Anderson made a film set in India (and it wasn’t The Darjeeling Limited)? The use of colour, framing and camera movement are full of Anderson’s influence, and star Radhika Apte’s deadpan delivery is worthy of comedic Wes regulars like Bill Murray or Jason Schwartzman. Although it’s set in India this is a British production, and that comes across in the humour too.
But this isn’t just a comedy – it jumps between a number of genres including, apparently, horror, which doesn’t really come across in the trailer but I’ve seen mentioned in a couple of reviews. Underpinning it all though is the idea that women should be free to be themselves, even when that goes against what society wants them to be – a worthy message for a release just after International Women’s Day (and indeed at any time of year).
This looks unpredictable and a lot of fun, and should be well worth catching while it’s in the cinema.
- Sister Midnight on IMDB
- Sister Midnight on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Tough one this week as there’s a good range of fun-looking films to pick from, but for sheer star power I think I’ve got to go for Black Bag.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Mickey 17
- One of Them Days
- The Last Showgirl
Trailer of the Week
Ever since it hit our screens with the surprisingly prescient story of a Prime Minister having sex with a pig, Black Mirror has been one of the most consistently interesting and engaging anthology series around. Creator Charlie Brooker looks at various aspects of modern culture and pushes them to the extreme, exploring and exposing the dangers of allowing our obsessions with technology and celebrity to overtake our lives. It’s mostly sci-fi, but a very believable brand of it. Many of the stories have a shocking climax, but the scarier part is often the status quo that is established in the build-up, where human interaction is reduced to rating people on a phone app or vegetating alone in a chair while plugged into a virtual world. So it’s very exciting to get this trailer for season 7, which is coming to Netflix in less than a month. With a stacked cast that would put most blockbusters to shame, including Paul Giamatti, Peter Capaldi, Awkwafina, Rashida Jones, Will Poulter, Issa Rae, Chris O’Dowd and Asim Chaudhry, it looks like this series will delve into the worlds of gaming, AI and VR. Plus, we are getting Black Mirror’s first ever sequel in the return of the USS Callister from the outstanding season 4 episode of the same name, with Cristin Milioti and Jimmi Simpson reprising their roles. With the world going increasingly nuts, if you’ve never stepped into the Black Mirror before, now would be a great time to start.
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