Hi, and welcome to the Film Roundup! Each week we take you through the upcoming cinema releases and talk about why you should be excited for them. Today we enjoy some uplifting prison drama in Sing Sing, and turn off Alexa (so she doesn’t get any ideas) for AfrAId. Plus The Count of Monte Cristo, Black Dog and Paradise Is Burning.
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.
Sing Sing
This is the first of two consecutive weeks where the new releases include a film title that repeats the same word twice. But unlike next week’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which is a sequel to Beetlejuice, Sing Sing is not a sequel to the 2016 animation starring Taron Egerton as a piano-playing gorilla. But (not unlike Sing) it is an uplifting story about the power of the arts.
Colman Domingo plays Divine G, who is locked up in New York prison Sing Sing for a crime he did not commit. Not wanting to let this situation beat him down, he enrols in the prison’s theatre programme, which was set up to give the inmates a safe outlet to express themselves and their feelings and help with rehabilitation. He quickly takes a shine to the role, and the film explores the impact that the group has on his fellow prisoners.
Domingo had a great year last year, earning an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Bayard Rustin and similarly high critical acclaim for his performance in The Colour Purple. This already feels like it could put him in good stead for a second nomination when the 97th Academy Awards roll around next year. Even from the short clips in the trailer, his character looks warm and likeable and you know he’s going to get at least one big speech in. And the subject of the film also feels very Oscar-baity – the idea of drama saving the souls of a group of prisoners is going to chime well with Academy voters.
It looks like the film goes into some depth about the effect that theatre can have in this particular situation. On the one hand, it gives the inmates not just a way to release their pent up emotions, but also a sense of escapism – in a world that constantly treats them like second-class citizens, they get to embody the role of a warrior or a king. But on the other hand, to act as another person is innately deceitful. Domingo’s face subtly dropping when the interviewer at his clemency hearing suggests that he might be acting during the hearing is heartbreaking. How can he persuade people that he is rehabilitating himself through drama when all they can see is a man training himself to lie?
This really looks like a beautiful film and absolutely worth seeking out.
- Sing Sing on IMDB
- Sing Sing on Rotten Tomatoes
AfrAId
If you’re the sort of person who worries that Jeff Bezos has a room full of people listening in to your conversation through your Alexa device, this is probably not the film for you. AfrAId tells the story of a family who are selected to trial a new digital assistant named AIA which is meant to revolutionise their home and lives. But as AIA gets more and more integrated into their routine, everything starts to take a sinister turn.
This is far from the first movie where an AI assistant goes too far. Last year’s M3GAN did much the same thing, albeit with a creepy doll face to go with the psychopathic operating system, and 2013’s Her was a (non-horror) masterclass in making a relationship with a disembodied voice feel real and sympathetic. At the start of the trailer, it feels like AfrAId is taking it in a more subtle and believable direction, bribing the kids to behave well and referring to herself as a second mother. By the end of it, she seems to have some sort of physical form, or is letting something vaguely demonic looking into the house. Personally I think if it stuck to the more subtle stuff then it would make for a much creepier and more interesting film, tapping into the genuine concerns people have about their reliance on AI and personal assistants – hopefully it doesn’t get too silly.
Either way, this does sound like fun. The parents in the family are played by John Cho and Katherine Waterston who are both pretty dependable actors, and the supporting cast also includes David Dastmalchian and Riki Lindhome.
- AfrAId on IMDB
- AfrAId on Rotten Tomatoes
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo is the latest adaptation of the book by Alexandre Dumas. Set in France and Italy in the 19th century, it charts the story of Edmond Dantès who is framed and falsely imprisoned before he can marry his fiancée. While in jail, a fellow inmate tells him of a secret stash of treasure, which Dantès recovers when he escapes and uses his new wealth to reinvent himself as the Count of Monte Cristo. He then sets out to take revenge on the three men who orchestrated his imprisonment.
It’s a great, swashbuckling adventure story of revenge and romance, and this looks like a slickly made adaptation. Reportedly the most expensive French film to be released this year, it’s full of lavish scenery, period costumes and flashy swordfights. I don’t know enough about French cinema to comment much on the director or cast, but everyone certainly looks the part. This should be a good watch.
- The Count of Monte Cristo on IMDB
- The Count of Monte Cristo on Rotten Tomatoes
Black Dog
On his release from jail (there are a lot of films about prisoners this week…), Lang returns to his hometown in China where he is tasked with helping to clear the stray dogs from the area ahead of the 2008 Olympics. He bonds with a black greyhound suspected of having rabies, and decides to keep it.
This looks like a really sweet story. We are told that the town’s dog infestation was caused by people moving away and leaving their dogs behind – Lang’s home is all but abandoned, much like society seems to have abandoned him due to his ex-con status. In caring for the dog he finds purpose and meaning, not to mention a very good boy who sits in his sidecar and puts his little paws up on his arm while he’s riding his motorbike… (I think the dog is going to steal the show here!). It’s done the festival circuit which has left it with a creditable 95% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. If you like cute dogs, or commentary on displaced societies in rural China, this is definitely one to look out for.
- Black Dog on IMDB
- Black Dog on Rotten Tomatoes
Paradise is Burning
Our final film this week is Swedish film Paradise is Burning, in which three sisters, whose mother is absent for long periods of time, try to find someone to stand in as their mother to protect them from being taken by social services.
This is another one that seems to have done well at the festivals, earning a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The cast looks great, full of teen angst while carrying the world on their shoulders. Youngest sister Steffi already looks like she’s going to steal every scene she’s in, whether casually holding a cigarette and telling her sister she’s on her period or screaming her lungs off in the middle of the supermarket. I think this looks great, and is another film that feels like it’s setting itself up for awards season.
- Paradise is Burning on IMDB
- Paradise is Burning on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week
As what feels like the first film this year that will be in several conversations when the Oscar nominations are announced, the film of the week this week is Sing Sing.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Blink Twice
- Cuckoo
- Alien: Romulus
Trailer of the week
I am a big Lord of the Rings fan, and it’s no secret that we’re all big anime fans here at Geeky Brummie. So of course, the first trailer for anime Rings spin-off movie The War of the Rohirrim is one that I’m pretty excited about. This film will be all about Helm Hammerhand and his fortress of Helm’s Deep – setting of the Greatest Movie Siege Of All Time in the second half of The Two Towers. Hammerhand is voiced by the great Brian Cox (the actor not the physicist), with Miranda Otto returning to narrate as Eowyn. With the second season of Rings of Power out today, it’s a good time to return to Middle Earth…
Leave a Reply