Hello, and welcome to the Geeky Brummie film roundup – bringing you the best of the cinema world’s new releases. This week, that includes Coppola’s magnum opus Megalopolis (try saying that three times fast…), Halle Berry horror Never Let Go, Oscar-bait The Outrun, and Big Red is back in Hellboy: The Crooked Man. Plus, we take a look at week 2 of BAFF ’24.
Usual disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, I haven’t seen these films. All of my opinions are based on trailers, early reviews and other rumours and buzz.
Birmingham Anime Film Festival – week two
BAFF is in full swing – we had a great weekend last week, despite the weather’s best efforts. This weekend is looking great too. This evening at the MAC we have annie-nominated Pompo the Cinephile, and then tomorrow at the Mockingbird it’s time for the great Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion. Saturday brings a Goku double-bill, with back-to-back screenings of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F and Dragonball Super: Super Hero in honour of the late Akira Toriyama. Then on Sunday we have a feast of modern classics, including the adorable Penguin Highway, the Beauty-and-the-Beast-inspired Belle, early Makoto Shinkai film Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below, and the ever-popular Shinkai masterpiece Your Name.
We’ll be hanging around in the Mockingbird and introducing the films, so come over and say hi!
Never Let Go
A mother (Halle Berry) and her two sons live in a cabin in the woods in a post-apocalyptic world, troubled by an evil presence. For safety, they must remain tethered to their home and each other. But when one of the children starts to question whether the evil is real, their bonds are tethered, and it all goes downhill from there…
Director Alexandre Aja has a lot of horror in his back-catalogue, including the 2006 remake of The Hills Have Eyes and creature features Piranha 3D and Crawl. While none of those are generally held up as masterpieces of the genre, he has had plenty of practice at upping tension and spilling blood. His latest is a high-concept psychological horror very much following in the footsteps of A Quiet Place and Birdbox, as well as this year’s The Watched. There is something unseen and sinister out there, and a rule must be followed to avoid it, but can our heroes survive when that rule is broken? The synopsis suggests an interesting take on that trope – one of the characters questions whether the evil forces are real, which will inevitably lead the audience to question the same thing. But the trailer seems to answer it pretty emphatically. There is some enjoyably creepy imagery on display, such as the hands clambering up the tree and the sight of Berry with a mouth covered in blood, all of which would suggest that the evil is very much there. Hopefully the plot might offer up some twists to keep it interesting.
Halle Berry is great (with one famous feline exception), and it looks like she’s getting into the spirit of the genre here. The relatively small lead cast means a lot of screen time will be focused on the kids, which is always a bit of a gamble, but based on the footage in the trailer it looks like they’ve done a good job too. Overall this could be a good creepy time – the reviews have been pretty average but not awful, with plenty of praise for Berry in particular.
- Never Let Go on IMDB
- Never Let Go on Rotten Tomatoes
Megalopolis
Pitched as a Roman epic transposed into modern America, Megalopolis is the story of a power struggle between two influential figures over the future of the city of New Rome. Adam Driver plays artist Cesar Catilina, who seeks a utopia for all, bringing him into conflict with Giancarlo Esposito’s greedy and corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero. Cicero’s daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) is caught between the two, as her love for Cesar clashes with her duty to her father.
This has been something of a passion project for legendary director Francis Ford Coppola. He has self-financed the entire film (a reported budget of around $120 million) – the third time that he’s done so. The first time was Apocalypse Now (1979), widely held to be one of the greatest films of all time. The second time was One From the Heart: Reprise (1981), which was such a massive flop that he declared bankruptcy and spent the next 16 years paying off his debts. He actually started writing the script in the early ’80s, and Laurence Fishburne has said that he remembers Coppola discussing the idea during the filming of Apocalypse Now. The first attempt at producing the film got as far as a table read in 2001 before being delayed and eventually scrapped due to the events of 9/11 (the original draft of the script included a scene that mirrored the terrorist attack). Which is a shame, because the cast present for the table read was incredible – it included Paul Newman, Uma Thurman, Robert DeNiro, James Gandolfini, Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.
The cast for the film we’ve got now is not quite as stacked as that, but it’s pretty close. Alongside Driver, Esposito and Emmanuel, there’s Aubrey Plaza (playing a character named Wow Platinum), Shia LeBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne and Jason Schwartzman. The concept of ancient Roman sensibilities playing out in a modern setting is full of promise – Netflix’s recent Kaos series did a similar thing with ancient Greece to great effect, but Rome’s famed opulence and ambition has a lot more cinematic potential. There appears to be a sci-fi element here too – the early teaser had Adam Driver stopping time with a click of his fingers, and the later trailers are full of surreal imagery. All of those components should come together to make something pretty incredible.
That said, the buzz around this film is not as positive as you might expect. A lot of people seem to have pre-judged it as overblown and pretentious, which seems a little harsh to me – any film inspired by ancient Rome is going to come across that way to some extent if it’s done properly. The reviews have been mixed, suggesting that it struggles under the weight of its own ambition. Coppola hit back at the early reviews by releasing a trailer featuring quotes from bad reviews of his earlier masterpieces like Apocalypse Now and The Godfather, which made a fair point (albeit in a bit of a petty way). Ultimately, the only way to really know if it’s any good is to see it for yourself. Even if you aren’t a fan, this promises to be spectacular cinema of the sort that, if you’re going to see it, has to be seen on a big screen. There is so much talent in front of and behind the camera that there has to be something you’ll enjoy.
- Megalopolis on IMDB
- Megalopolis on Rotten Tomatoes
The Outrun
Based on a memoir of the same name by Amy Liptrot (who also co-wrote the screenplay), The Outrun is about a young woman named Rona (Saoirse Ronan) who returns to her childhood home of Orkney in the hopes of recovering from the drug and alcohol addicted life that she’s been leading in London.
I’m a big fan of Saoirse Ronan – I’ve yet to see a film she’s been that I haven’t enjoyed, and she’s invariably the best thing in it. She’s had four Oscar nominations all before her 26th birthday, and this looks like exactly the sort of film that could earn her a fifth – based on an inspirational true story, with a lot of potential for a powerful performance. Also in the cast are Stephen ‘the Mannis’ Dillane, fresh from being chained to a rock in his pants in Kaos, and Paapa Essiedu.
As well as discussing the author’s recovery, the memoir that the film is based on was partly a piece of nature journalism, and it looks like the film has incorporated that too with some lovely shots of Orkney’s dramatic landscapes and adorable wildlife. I really like the look of this, and it serves as a nice breather from the genre-heavy fare making up the rest of the week’s new releases.
- The Outrun on IMDB
- The Outrun on Rotten Tomatoes
Hellboy: The Crooked Man
Guillermo Del Toro’s 2004 and 2008 Hellboy films were excellent pieces of modern fantasy. Neil Marshall’s 2019 effort was a lot weaker, but had a great performance from David Harbour in the lead role. Del Toro (The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth) and Marshall (Dog Soldiers, Game of Thrones) both had plenty of experience when it came to dark fantasy with horror elements, which made them a perfect fit for Hellboy’s grander stories.
With the Crooked Man, director Brian Taylor (Crank, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) has sought to bring the stakes down to a lower level and switch the focus towards the horror. Hellboy (now played by Jack Kesy) and new Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence recruit Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph) discover a remote community in the Appalacians haunted by the titular Crooked Man. Can they overcome the demon to save the village’s populace – and do the villagers want to be saved?
Comic book author Mike Mignola had a hand in writing this one, and the attempt to offer a more grounded (as far as a story about a half-demon who battles paranormal threats can be grounded) film is creditable. However, this feels like a weaker entry than those that came before it. Kesy doesn’t have the same gruff, world-weary persona that Ron Perlman and David Harbour captured so well. And for me, as a fan of Guillermo Del Toro who hasn’t read the comics, it feels like it’s missing something without the twisted fairytale elements. It’s also not a great sign that this seems to be arriving with very little fanfare, given the popularity of the first two films. It could be fun, and fans of the comics will likely appreciate it more, but I’m not expecting too much of it.
- Hellboy: The Crooked Man on IMDB
- Hellboy: The Crooked Man on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Don’t listen to the people on the internet who are decrying it as rubbish before they’ve seen it. And ignore the weird trailer making fun of the critics who didn’t enjoy The Godfather as if that proves this will be just as beloved in time. Whether it’s an overambitious mess or an initially-underappreciated modern classic, Megalopolis should be an impressive piece of cinema – there’s a reason it’s not called Averageopolis. Watch it for yourself and make your own mind up. And besides, Francis Ford Coppola needs to make his money back…
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- The Substance
- Speak No Evil
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Trailer of the week
This new trailer for Rumours looks utterly bonkers and great fun, which is not something I thought I’d be writing about a film that is ostensibly about a G7 summit. Cate Blanchett and Charles Dance are among the world leaders trying to deal with some world politics while being beset by zombie bog bodies and a giant brain.
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