Hello, and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we run through the biggest new cinema releases and why you should get excited for them. This week: crows in Portland, clay in Gotham, creepy goings-on in Button House and Klara in the sunshine.
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.
Wildwood
In Portland, Oregon, Prue McKeel’s (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) little brother is kidnapped by a murder of crows and she sets off into the woods to get him back, accompanied by her classmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay).
I’ve been looking forward to this one ever since the first mood-setting title reveal trailer landed a couple of years ago. Laika has pushed the boundaries of what stop-motion animation is capable of for years now, with every one of its movies (including Coraline, Boxtrolls and Kubo & the Two Strings) being a beautiful, mature, critically acclaimed fairy tale. The amount of work, skill and craftsmanship that literally goes into every frame of their films is staggering.
But even compared to their incredible back-catalogue, Wildwood feels like their magnum opus. The company is based in Portland, so they know the area intimately – the city itself is immaculately recreated, and they’ve been able to capture the haunted, mysterious spirit of the dark forests that surround it. That Portland connection also enabled Director Travis Knight (who made several of Laika’s biggest hits as well as Bumblebee and this year’s Masters of the Universe) to secure the film rights to the book, by Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy, just a week after it was released. This is the longest stop-motion animation of all time, and has some incredibly complex looking scenes. Some of the showier set pieces are obviously impressive – there’s a battle scene with hundreds of adversaries charging at each other which must have been a nightmare to keep track of – but the smaller scale stuff is beautifully brought to life too. Tiny details like hair or feathers moving in the wind, that are so natural we barely even notice them, will have required a tremendous effort to recreate one frame at a time. This is the sort of film that you might want to watch twice – once to enjoy as a film, and once to just admire the artistry.
This also looks incredibly entertaining as a film in its own right. The cast is brilliant, with Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Jemaine Clement, Tom Waits, Maya Erskine, Richard E Grant, Rob Delaney and Amandla Stenberg all lending their vocal talents. It’s a proper old fashioned fairytale fantasy epic, with the likes of Princess Mononoke and Pan’s Labyrinth cited as influences, deeply rooted in the Oregon landscape and folk tales. It would be tragic if after all that work Wildwood had turned out not to be very good, but fortunately the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive – it currently has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (and a 98% audience rating).
I cannot stress this enough: go and see this movie. It’s perfect if you need something to entertain the kids during half term, but adults will love it too. This is the sort of filmmaking that deserves to be rewarded, and you’ll be rewarded for seeing it.
- Wildwood on IMDB
- Wildwood on Rotten Tomatoes
Clayface
Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) is an up-and-coming young Hollywood actor and loving life as a rising star. But all of that goes away when a brutal attack leaves his face scarred and disfigured. Desperate to return to his old life, he signs up to an experimental treatment that heals his face, but leaves his body amorphous and malleable. With his new-found abilities, he seeks revenge on the criminals that ruined his life.
As one of the first entries in the new DC Studios roster, following on from the bright primary colours of Superman and the butt-kicking girl-power of Supergirl, it’s a bold move to release a body horror based on one of Batman’s weirdest nemeses. That does however, almost by default, make this one of the most interesting comic book movies we’ve had in years. The trailer doesn’t go too deep into the action scenes that will inevitably be included once Clayface learns what he’s capable of, leaning instead into the stomach-churning sight of his skin melting and warping around him. The aeroplane scene where he needs to cut his eyelids open again is particularly disturbing. Body horror has already been making a bit of a comeback since the success of The Substance, but the DC branding here will probably make this one more palatable to the casual cinemagoer.
This currently has a solid 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics largely disagreeing on whether it succeeds more as a horror film or as a Batman spin-off. It will be interesting to see how it fits into the wider DC universe given the tonal differences with the other films.
- Clayface on IMDB
- Clayface on Rotten Tomatoes
Ghosts: The Possession of Button House
When a group of kids breaks into the deserted Button House, one of them is possessed by the ghost of Julian Fawcett MP (Simon Farnaby). Finding himself able to leave the grounds for the first time in decades, Julian tracks down his old living friends Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) and Mike (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) and starts causing chaos. Meanwhile, the soul of the boy whose body he’s taken finds himself trapped in Button House with the rest of the ghosts.
Ghosts is one of those wonderfully comforting, easy-watch, hot chocolates of a TV show that you can’t help but love. It’s incredibly funny but also very moving in places, with beautifully written characters that have just become more fleshed out (maybe the wrong choice of words) as the series developed. To get the most out of the film you probably will need to have seen the TV series first – I’m sure first-timers will get the gist of it but won’t know the cast intimately enough to fully appreciate it. Those who have seen the show will know that Julian is the perfect choice to break free – he has by far the most questionable moral compass, and the idea of him running riot is immediately funnier than Button House’s more disciplined denizens like Pat (Jim Howick) or the Captain (Ben Willbond). It also looks like Scott Ellis-Watson is having a great time playing Julian trapped in the body of a teenage boy.
I am very much looking forward to returning to Button House. The only question is whether this will leave the story open for more films, or serve to bring closure to the characters.
- Ghosts: The Possession of Button House on IMDB
- Ghosts: The Possession of Button House on Rotten Tomatoes
Klara and the Sun
Klara (Jenna Ortega) is an ‘artificial friend’ – a robot designed to help prevent loneliness. She’s bought by Chrissy (Amy Adams) as a companion for her daughter Josie (Mia Tharia) while the family is grieving. The solar-powered Klara prays to the Sun, but soon finds that humanity is too complex and unpredictable to solve their problems so easily.
This is based on a book by Kazuo Ishiguro (who also wrote Never Let Me Go) and directed by Taika Waititi. Despite the occasional wobble (like Thor: Love & Thunder), a new Taika Waititi film is always something to look out for, and a lighthearted story about a quirky character discovering the ups and downs of life for the first time is right up his street. The plot is basically ‘what if M3GAN was nice?’, and Ortega seems a great fit for the naïve and endlessly cheerful Klara, even if she is the polar opposite of her most famous role as Wednesday Addams. Amy Adams, meanwhile, is well cast too – she has the acting talent to play a relatable, grieving but caring mother, but also the comedy experience to match Waititi’s whimsy when the moment calls for it. The cast also includes Natasha Lyonne as the shop owner who sells Klara to the family, who’s always a good reason to watch anything.
The reviews for this haven’t been amazing – the main complaint seems to be that there is a jarring difference in tone from scene to scene, with the comedic elements butting up against some very serious moments. But overall I think this looks like a lot of fun.
- Klara and the Sun on IMDB
- Klara and the Sun on Rotten Tomatoes
Ali G: Who Iz I?
After 20 years away from the limelight, Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen) discovers that his girlfriend Julie (Morgana Robinson) is pregnant. Needing money to support his new family, he heads to LA to try and revitalise his career.
Although he is best known for hidden camera stunts, both in Ali G’s original TV show and with his other characters Borat and Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen’s first Ali G movie (Ali G Indahouse) was more of a standard fictional story. This time he’s mirroring the success of Borat with a mockumentary following Ali as he tries to break America, which not only gives him a reason to do more stunts, but also (unbelievably at this point) gives him a whole host of possible victims who won’t immediately recognise him in character.
If you’ve seen any of Baron Cohen’s work before you’ll have a good idea of what to expect here. The Ali G character is very much of his time, and it’s hard to say if he’ll land quite so well nowadays, but the waves of discomfort Baron Cohen is capable of instilling in his victims are endlessly entertaining. There are apparently some particularly horrific stunts in the final act, which I am very intrigued to see. For the most part the reviews haven’t been great, but if you’re a fan of Ali G (or Borat) then you’ll probably still enjoy this one.
- Ali G: Who Iz I? on IMDB
- Ali G: Who Iz I? on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
It’s a strong week, but somehow this is still an easy choice: Wildwood looks absolutely incredible.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Street Fighter
- Whalefall
- Forgotten Island
Trailer of the Week
With Halloween only a week away, it feels appropriate to pick a horror movie for this week’s Trailer of the Week. Slayground sees a horror event actor, Michael (Cory Michael Smith), wake up alive and well but surrounded by the dead bodies of his colleagues with no memory of what happened. As the authorities begin looking for him as a major suspect, he has to piece everything together and figure out whether he might have been responsible. This may look like a standard slasher flick at first glance, but it’s directed by Jeremy Saulnier, whose previous movies like Green Room have been impressively gritty and tense, and has a score by multiple Oscar winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The Memento-style memory loss factor should set it apart from other horrors too, and it’s produced by A24 which is always a sign of quality. Slayground will be cutting its way onto our screens in the new year.
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