Hello, and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we run through the biggest new cinema releases and why you should be excited for them. This week: musical plagiarism, liminal spaces, audible safecracking and inter-generational art.
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.
Power Ballad
Rick (Paul Rudd) is a wedding singer whose musical career is stuck in a rut when he meets Danny (Nick Jonas), a boy band star keen to make a name for himself as a solo artist. Rick shows Danny a song he’s been working on for a while, only to hear it some time later on the radio when Danny releases it as a single. The song is a huge hit, and Rick sets out to try and claim the credit and royalties he believes are due to him.
It is almost scientifically impossible not to like Paul Rudd. His relaxed demeanour and friendly roles have made him into a relatable everyman, despite his total refusal to show any signs of aging. This looks like the exact sort of role that suits him down to a tee – a nice guy who’s been downtrodden for a while but has stayed positive throughout. Nick Jonas also has a nice guy reputation, and it doesn’t look like Danny is meant to be seen as a baddie here, but his celebrity status is enough to make this into a David and Goliath story where the audience will no doubt be rooting for Rick to get his recognition.
The reviews for this have been very positive – the Rotten Tomatoes rating has dropped a little from the 96% touted in the trailer but it’s still very high (89% at the time of writing), with praise for Rudd’s performance and favourable comparisons to director John Carney’s earlier films such as Sing Street. By all accounts it’s an uplifting, feel-good comedy that’s almost as likeable as Paul Rudd himself.
- Power Ballad on IMDB
- Power Ballad on Rotten Tomatoes
Backrooms
In this adaptation of a series of shorts by director Kane Parsons, itself adapted from a 4chan post, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) finds a door at the back of his furniture shop that leads to a mysterious other dimension. The Backrooms are a series of largely empty, office-like rooms and hallways with eerie yellow lighting and vaguely sinister piped music. As Clark explores the endless maze of rooms, they start to take a dangerous turn and, when he doesn’t come out, his sceptical therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) goes in looking for him.
The concept of the Backrooms has been kicking around on the internet for a while now. It’s the seminal example of a liminal space – a place that is familiar on the surface but made surreal by its emptiness and abandonment. If you happened to walk through a shopping mall during the early days of lockdown you’ll probably have a good idea of how unsettling that absence of presence and noise can be. The original 4chan post was published in 2019, and since then Parsons has released 24 short films on Youtube exploring the concept. This is his first feature length film, and although a lot of its success can be put down to brand recognition, it’s still an impressive debut.
Ejiofor and the recently Oscar-nominated Reinsve are both great character actors who will be able to sell both the wonder of the initial discovery and the creeping dread that it leads to. The trailer doesn’t give too much more of the plot away, but really this film will be less about what happens and more about how it makes you feel. The reviews have been very positive, recognising in particular that this is a different kind of horror to anything else out there (although conceptually it’s not a million miles off the film adaptation of Exit 8 from last month).
- Backrooms on IMDB
- Backrooms on Rotten Tomatoes
Tuner
Niki (Leo Woodall) puts his hyperacusis – an oversensitivity to sound – to good use as a skilled piano tuner, working with his mentor Harry (Dustin Hoffman). His job brings him into contact with virtuoso musician Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), with whom he strikes up a romance, as well as a group of burglars who invite him to help them open safes, using his hearing to tell when the pins of the lock click into place. When Harry falls ill and needs money for the medical bills, Niki agrees to help out with the heists.
This is an original film with an intriguing premise and a great cast. Woodall is a bit of a rising star, having appeared in the likes of White Lotus and the most recent Bridget Jones movie, while Havana Rose Liu is having a good week – she also appears in Power Ballad. Dustin Hoffman is of course a veteran actor who seems to have a great rapport with Woodall’s Niki.
I haven’t seen a lot of advertising for this, but it’s getting some great reviews – it currently has 94% on Rotten Tomatoes (with a 98% audience rating), with praise being heaped on Woodall and Liu, as well as on director Daniel Roher for his measured pacing and grasp of natural and believable romance. The only criticism seems to be that it’s trying to do too much – this is a romance, a drama, a thriller and a heist movie all rolled into one, and although it excels at the more character-driven elements (the drama and romance), it becomes a bit silly the more it leans into the crime. Still, it sounds like this is well worth a watch.
- Tuner on IMDB
- Tuner on Rotten Tomatoes
Moss & Freud
Based on a true story, Moss & Freud sees supermodel Kate Moss (Ellie Bamber), at the height of her career, model for a nude portrait by acclaimed artist Lucian Freud (Derek Jacobi). As she bares her soul, Moss discovers sides of herself that she had never recognised before.
I’m not sure that Lucian Freud’s painting of Kate Moss is quite the cultural moment that the filmmakers here think it was, but they’re certainly billing it as the convergence of two of the biggest icons of British art. Derek Jacobi is a bit of a legend, and Ellie Bamber seems to do a great job of portraying Moss – it’s extra challenging playing someone who was such a fixture in the media. Moss herself is credited as an executive producer, which probably goes some way towards explaining the emphasis on her voyage of self-discovery. It’s appropriately arty in its cinematography, capturing Moss’s modelling career through harsh lighting against dark backgrounds, like camera flashes going off in a blacked out studio.
Fans of either of the two main characters should find this a fascinating insight into their respective lives and careers.
- Moss & Freud on IMDB
- Moss & Freud on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Step into the Backrooms.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- The Mandalorian and Grogu – Essentially just a long episode of the TV show (complete with side-quests within side-quests), but there’s really nothing wrong with that. Grogu is as adorable as ever, even if he’s occasionally upstaged by Babu Frik and his fellow Angellans, and Pedro Pascal manages to inject plenty of heart and heroics into a character whose face is almost permanently covered by an expressionless helmet. Jeremy Allen White’s voice acting for Rotta the Hutt never quite sounds right, but Rotta himself makes for a fun character. It won’t win any awards, but there is plenty here for Star Wars fans to enjoy.
- Passenger
- Obsession
Trailer of the Week
X-Men ’97 – the revival of the legendary ’90s Saturday morning cartoon – was a huge hit a couple of years ago. It tapped into nostalgia for the original show, bringing back much of the classic voice cast, replicating (but modernising) the animation style, and of course sticking with the incredible theme music. But it also did more than enough to justify its own existence, capturing the narrative complexity and thematic nuances of the comics’ stories and weaving in genuinely dramatic and emotional beats alongside the superhero action. We now have a trailer for season 2, which picks up where season 1 left off (NB, the trailer has some spoilers for season 1 early on) – with the mutant heroes scattered throughout time and preparing to face off against Apocalypse, both at the start of his rise to power in ancient Egypt and at the height of his rule in the distant future. Throw in some glimpses of some brutal battles, new characters including Magneto’s daughter Polaris, and an epic orchestral version of the theme music, and this is one of the most exciting trailers we’ve seen for a while. Fortunately we don’t have too long to wait, as Wolverine, Cyclops, Rogue, Jean Grey, Beast and co will be returning to Disney+ on 1 July.
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