Hello and welcome to the Geeky Brummie Film Roundup! Each week we take you through the biggest new cinema releases and why you should be excited for them. This week: shoplifters, paedophiles, and some very saucy basket weaving…
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.
I Love Boosters
The Velvet Gang, a group of shoplifters led by Corvette (Keke Palmer), decide to target high-end fashion designer Christie Smith (Demi Moore) by stealing her clothes and selling them on for a lower price.
Written and directed by Boots Riley (Sorry To Bother You), this looks like a lot of fun. It sounds like it plays out like a modern day Robin Hood, and uses that outline to take aim at capitalism and the elitism of the fashion industry. The cast is excellent – as well as Palmer and Moore, there’s Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, LaKeith Stanfield, Eiza Gonzalez, Poppy Liu, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle and Viggo Mortensen. The 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating boasted in the trailer has dropped to a still very impressive 92%, with critics saying it’s creative, chaotic and very funny.
- I Love Boosters on IMDB
- I Love Boosters on Rotten Tomatoes
Primetime
In 2006, Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) creates the TV show To Catch A Predator – a reality show aimed at identifying and publicly outing men who try to seduce underage girls. As the show takes off, Hansen becomes increasingly obsessed with upping the scale of its captures. But how far is it acceptable to push one’s morality to stop someone as morally bankrupt as a paedophile?
This looks pretty intense. Directed by Lance Oppenheim (who also directed the upcoming Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything), it paints Hansen as a vigilante of sorts (not unlike a certain other Pattinson role) dispensing his own brand of justice without allowing his targets any kind of due process. His actions put actor Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo) in more and more danger, as he is asked to go deeper into the predators’ world playing the teenage boy they think they are talking to online. And as heavily armed police get involved, the situation is only going to escalate. Pattinson looks to be on good form here, walking the line between hero and villain. It would be interesting to know how closely the film mirrors the real events and people it’s based on.
- Primetime on IMDB
- Primetime on Rotten Tomatoes
Wicker
A lonely fisherwoman (Olivia Coleman), tired of being made fun of, asks the local basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) to craft her a husband. He weaves her a living wicker man (Alexander Skarsgård) and they are quickly married. But the combination of prejudice against the wicker man’s oddness and jealous resentment of their surprisingly energetic sex life turns the village against the couple.
This looks absolutely daft as a brush and loads of fun. Coleman and Dinklage are both very likeable actors who aren’t afraid to embrace a little ridiculousness, and the supporting cast is excellent too – the villagers include Richard E Grant, Elizabeth Debicki, Kiell Smith-Binoe and Phil “Parklife” Daniels. It’s a sort of weird combination of romantic comedy, surreal fantasy and fetishist romance, but it looks genuinely quite heartfelt too – like The Shape of Water but with a wicker man instead of a fish man (The Shape of Wicker?). The reviews have been very positive, with 95% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing.
You have to admire the work that’s gone into the costume too. If you start weaving now, it would make for a great outfit for Halloween 2027…
- Wicker on IMDB
- Wicker on Rotten Tomatoes
Bad Day at the Office
Karl Davis (John Hannah) wakes up one day in a hotel room with the walls covered in blood, a dead body in the bath, and no memory of how he got there or what happened. With help from the maid Molly (Radha Mitchell), he has to fill in the gaps of his amnesia and uncover the conspiracy before he’s caught by the police and framed for the murder.
This year we’ve seen John Hannah as a creepy seal person in The Incomer, but somehow the idea of him as an action hero is a lot less believable. Fortunately, he doesn’t need to worry about stunts too much in this because the film is shot entirely in the first person, with the audience largely seeing the events unfold through Karl’s eyes – meaning Hannah is effectively behind the camera. It’s a bit of a gimmick that has been done before (see for example the similarly action packed Hardcore Henry and the much more interesting ghost story Presence), and can be effective but ultimately looks a bit exhausting, like watching someone else play a videogame so well that you’re struggling to keep track of what they’re doing. Any kind of filmmaking experimentation is something to be applauded though, and gamers familiar with first person shooters might really love this.
- Bad Day at the Office on IMDB
- Bad Day at the Office on Rotten Tomatoes
Everest: The Other Side
In this documentary, mountaineering couple Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison attempt what only five people have ever done – climb the direct North face of Everest – and then what nobody has ever done – ski back down it.
Shot entirely in IMAX, this looks visually incredible – it offers stunning, crystal clear views of the Himalayas that most of us will never get to see in person. The immensity of the mountains and the constant imminent dangers they bring really hammer home the utter stupidity of anyone thinking of bombing down them on a couple of flat bits of plastic. It really is an insane endeavour, but the power of the documentary is to make you forget all that and invest in the personalities of the people willing to give it a go. This looks fascinating and beautiful and I’m very glad there are people out there making films like this so that I don’t have to.
- Everest: The Other Side on IMDB
- Everest: The Other Side on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Weave your way to Wicker.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
- Wildwood – I expected Wildwood to be an incredible film but, my God, that is one incredible film. Dark and tragic from the off, this is a fairy tale in all the best ways but not a film for little kids. The woods of Wildwood are full of shadows and dangers, but also breathtaking beauty and magic, and so many memorable characters that you want to know more about all of them. And every time you take a step back and look at the work that’s gone into the animation, it becomes even more spectacular. Flocks of birds, oppressive strands of ivy, and battles that wouldn’t look out of place in the Lord of the Rings have all been lovingly and painstakingly brought to life in what has to be a strong contender for the best film I’ve seen this year. Absolutely faultless.
- Clayface
- Ghosts: The Possession of Button House – Films that spin off from popular TV series can be a bit hit and miss, but Ghosts gets it just right. There are real stakes, with the life of a kid hanging in the balance, which make this more than just a feature-length episode, but it also stays true to everything that makes the show so great. All the main characters get at least a moment to shine, and the writers have managed to find new ways to eke some humour out of the central concept. One scene involving some Amblin-style bike riding is particularly brilliant. If you’re a fan of the program then you won’t be disappointed.
Trailer of the Week
With only a couple of months now until its release, the final trailer has dropped for Dune: Part Three. This last look really showcases the scale of the film, with huge pitched battles on Arrakis and in space as Timothée Chalamet’s now Emperor Paul Atreides does what all self respecting galactic emperors do and turns to the dark side. But it also shows the more emotional stakes between Paul and his lover-turned-Fremenemy Chani (Zendaya) as they try to figure out where everything went wrong and whether and how they can fix it. The cast also includes Florence Pugh, Robert Pattinson, Jason Momoa and Anya Taylor-Joy. Dune 3 will be riding its sandworms to cinemas on 18 December (no longer the same day as Avengers: Doomsday which will now be out on the 16th – that’s still going to be a tough week to call Film of the Week though…).
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