Hello, and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we talk through the biggest new cinema releases and why you should be excited for them. This week: dinosaurs, nuns, chefs, toffs, and more!
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.
The End of Oak Street
Life is good in the idyllic American suburb of Oak Street – there’s a strong sense of community, where everyone knows everyone else’s name and gets together in big street parties. The Platts – dad Greg (Ewan McGregor), mum Denise (Anne Hathaway), daughter Audrey (Maisy Stella) and son Brian (Sweet Tooth’s Christian Convery) – look like a perfect family to their neighbours, but privately have their issues. It’s all very normal until the entire neighbourhood is suddenly transported millions of years into the past, and the local lizards start wandering in…
I went to a preview of this earlier in the week and had a great time with it. Inevitably, any film that pitches modern humans against dinosaurs will draw comparisons to Jurassic Park, but Oak Street invites those comparisons with pride – there are some definite nods to it in Michael Giacchino’s score, some of the lighting effects and framing, and the bickering family dynamics. But it’s also its own beast. Although the action is confined to a small suburb, there’s a distinctly apocalyptic tone that you don’t get in Jurassic Park. In that film, the dinosaurs are confined to an island and if the humans can escape the island they’ll be safe, but Oak Street is an island of humanity in a world of teeth and chaos that is rapidly closing in on them. There’s a real sense that what we’re seeing with the Platts is just one of a hundred other stories of survival (or not) taking place around the area at the same time – the background of every outdoor shot is increasingly littered with dead bodies (human and dinosaur), abandoned cars, damaged houses, and prehistoric creatures wandering around trying to make sense of the new environment that’s just appeared in the middle of their forest.
As you would expect, Hathaway and McGregor both give great performances. The writing just about manages to make it feel credible that Greg and Denise are still airing their marital issues even when the world is collapsing around them – they’ve both been bottling up grievances for a long time and the dinosaurs present a perfect excuse to let them all out. The kids do some good work too, particularly Convery – there’s a whole sub-plot conveyed entirely through Brian’s facial expressions when he and his sister are interacting with local public schoolgirl Jeanette (Jordan Alexa Davis). Some of the supporting cast is less impressive, although special mention goes to P.J. Byrne clearly having fun as the Platts’ Karen-y neighbour Mel.
Writer-director David Robert Mitchell (not Peep Show David Mitchell, or Cloud Atlas David Mitchell, but the one who directed It Follows) does a fantastic job of building up the suspense. The Platts don’t have the benefit of an Alan Grant or a Robert Muldoon to tell them which dinosaurs are a threat and which are veggiesauruses – whether it’s a giant toothy monster or a seemingly placid herd of giant tortoises, everything is treated with caution and terror (with one pair of notable exceptions). An impressive amount of tension is in what you don’t see, with the white picket fences and immaculate garden hedges granting a generous amount of off-screen space for hungry lizards to maybe be hiding in. Even when you can see the dinosaurs coming it’s pretty intense – the inevitable appearance of a T-rex will have you practically yelling at the cinema screen. And when the action does come, it’s surprisingly brutal in places. I have a couple of minor gripes with the writing – firstly that several characters make some very obviously bad decisions (especially Brian – let the dog go, kid), and secondly that a lot of the early dialogue is given over to some very unnatural exposition (like the local librarian’s ability to recognise and name a millennia-old extinct tree from a photo). But they weren’t distracting enough to spoil my enjoyment of the dino action.
Overall, this is a hugely enjoyable and pleasingly original summer blockbuster that deserves to be sharing the cinema screens with big hitters like the Odyssey and Spider-Man.
- The End of Oak Street on IMDB
- The End of Oak Street on Rotten Tomatoes
Lady
Lady Isabella (Sian Clifford) is a lonely, narcissistic aristocrat living in her own in an enormous estate. Desperate for the limelight, she manages to get a young director (Laurie Kynaston) to film her attempts at various artistic endeavours. But things take a strange turn when she starts turning invisible.
Filmed in a mockumentary style, this looks wonderfully daft and more than a little bit surreal, with hints of What We Do In The Shadows in its tone and humour (especially in the lingering sense that their subject might be a real threat to a documentary crew). Clifford is clearly having a great time revelling in Isabella’s self importance and insecurities, while the stately setting keeps the film visually arresting too. It will be interesting to see where the invisibility sub-plot goes – whether they reveal what’s causing it or manage to find any sort of cure – but it’s clearly a commentary on Isabella’s desire to be seen. She is both a bit of a monster and deeply sympathetic, which makes for a fascinating character study.
This looks like a lot of fun and is getting some positive reviews.
- Lady on IMDB
- Lady on Rotten Tomatoes
Sunny Dancer
After successfully beating cancer, 17 year old Ivy (Bella Ramsey) wants to move on with her life. Instead, her parents enrol her at Children Run Free Camp – a summer camp for kids and young adults who have been affected by cancer. Despite her misgivings, Ivy finds friendship among the misfits she meets there and starts to embrace life to the fullest.
Any film with a premise built around kids surviving cancer is bound to be uplifting, and this looks like no exception. Between Game of Thrones and The Last Of Us, Bella Ramsey has had plenty of practice at playing a young girl who’s had to miss out on a proper childhood to deal with trauma and responsibilities beyond her years (nerdy side note: who knew that Lyanna Mormont was the daughter of Ormund Hightower?). This feels like Lyanna/Ellie’s chance to reclaim their coming of age story and get a happy ending. The cast also features Neil Patrick Harris as an overenthusiastic camp leader, and Ivy’s fellow campers include Lockwood & Co’s Ruby Stokes, and, a bit randomly, Jasmine Elcock, who I genuinely remember for her beautiful rendition of Cher’s Believe on Britain’s Got Talent a decade ago!
Obviously it’s not all happy fun times – Ivy is clearly pretty miserable at the start of the story, and there are plenty of musings on what the kids have been through and what could have been. But you need that darkness to make the dawn seem brighter, and this is bound to make its audiences leave the cinema with a spring in their step.
- Sunny Dancer on IMDB
- Sunny Dancer on Rotten Tomatoes
Tony
After failing to secure a prestigious writing scholarship, 19 year old Anthony Bourdain (Dominic Sessa) takes a summer job working in a restaurant kitchen for a master chef (Antonio Banderas). The experience changes the course of his life.
The poster for Tony features a quote from (the real) Anthony Bourdain about his teenage self: “I was – to be frank – a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, and badly in need of a good ass-kicking.” Anyone who has watched his brilliant performance in The Holdovers will know that Dominic Sessa is pretty perfect casting – able to sell both the narcissism and the inner fragility that it’s borne from, without veering into being unlikeable. Banderas meanwhile is at the point in his career where he makes for a great mentor figure, dishing out seafood and wisdom in equal measure and all with a twinkle in the eye. The stress and tension of working in a kitchen are clearly not lost here, but there are also some lovely moments between these two where Banderas nurtures his protege’s potential. The cast also includes CODA’s Emilia Jones and Tuner’s Leo Woodall – like Sessa, both very up-and-coming actors.
This is getting the sorts of reviews that Bourdain would be proud of, with an impressive 96% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. Whether you’re interested in his life, or just want to watch a dramatic coming of age tale with some strong central performances, this should be well worth catching.
- Tony on IMDB
- Tony on Rotten Tomatoes
Holy Days
Three nuns – Sister Agnes (Judy Davis), Sister Mary Clare (Jacki Weaver) and Sister Luke (Miriam Margolyes), together with a young boy (Brian Collins) take a road trip across New Zealand to track down the deeds to their convent and save it from demolition.
There is some great casting in the central trio – Davis and Weaver are both Oscar nominees, and Miriam Margolyes is always a joy to watch. The story and tone don’t look especially original – it’s all very sweet and very safe, with some gentle comedy and nice character work but nothing that will make it stand out from any other nun or road trip movie. This won’t be your new favourite film, but it will be a very pleasant way to relax on a warm Sunday evening.
- Holy Days on IMDB
- Holy Days on Rotten Tomatoes
Momo and the Time Thieves
Based on a book by Michael Ende, Momo and the Time Thieves follows the titular Momo (Alexa Goodall), an orphan girl living in an old amphitheatre. One day she meets a magical tortoise that communicates using writing that appears on its shell, who takes her to meet Master Hora (Martin Freeman), the custodian of time. When she gets home she discovers that a year has passed, and some sinister people in grey suits are stealing everyone’s time. It’s up to Momo and Hora to see them off and save the day (hour, minute, etc).
Exactly what is meant by “stealing everyone’s time” isn’t entirely clear from the trailer, but according to the book’s Wikipedia page the grey men are essentially stealing free time – through their scheming, people lose the time they would have wasted on frivolities like socialising and art and sleeping, and their lives get shorter as a result. It’s a creepy if slightly confusing concept, but hopefully the film does a better job than the trailer of showing what’s happening. The story is a metaphor for capitalism and how focusing too much on work and money can deprive you of the things that really matter – a message that is even more important now than it was in the 70s when the book was written. How much of that message will be picked up on by the young target audience probably depends on the kid, but this still looks like an entertaining fantasy adventure to keep children occupied for a couple of hours during the holidays.
- Momo and the Time Thieves on IMDB
- Momo and the Time Thieves on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
…turn right and head on to The End of Oak Street.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
Trailer of the Week
Paper Tiger follows brothers Gary and Irwin Pearl, played by Miles Teller and Adam Driver, who find themselves caught up in a shady scheme with the Russian mafia. When the mafia starts to threaten their families (including Irwin’s wife Hester, played by Scarlett Johansson), their fraternal bonds begin to fray. This looks like a good old-fashioned crime thriller, with some nicely grainy cinematography. It’s released in America in November and hopefully over here soon afterwards.
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