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: the Devil, a witch, and some personal demons…
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.
The Devil Wears Prada 2
The first Devil Wears Prada was an unashamedly campy comedy with an incredible cast (it launched Emily Blunt’s career) and immaculate style. Now, a mere two decades later, its sequel is strutting up the catwalk looking to capture the same energy. The plot here sees Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly and her beloved fashion magazine Runway embroiled in a scandal that sees the company’s stock, and Miranda’s personal reputation, start to plummet. But help arrives in the form of her former assistant Andy (Anne Hathaway), now a successful journalist, who is brought on board to try and save the magazine. Stanley Tucci’s Nigel and Emily Blunt’s Emily are also on hand to support with acerbic sarcasm and derisive fashion tips.
Miranda Priestly is a fantastic cinematic creation – heavily based on Anna Wintour, she commands the level of awed respect that only comes with decades of being at the top of your game, with the imperious air of someone who is both very important and very aware of her own importance. Meryl Streep is perfectly cast, able to give the kind of withering glance that could destroy a career. The idea of her having to reconcile that reputation with a moment of vulnerability is quite compelling. Meanwhile, Anne Hathaway has gone from strength to strength since the first film but hasn’t lost the breezy energy that made Andy so likeable. And Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci are each enough reason on their own to justify watching a film. All four of the main cast have both the dramatic chops and the comedic sensibilities to make a film like this work on every level it needs to.
The reviews I’ve seen have been largely positive, with praise for returning director David Frankel and writers Aline Brosh McKenna and Laura Weisburger for taking the time to find a new story worth telling instead of riding on the immediate success of the original. And if you can find a cinema that’s still showing both, this would make for a great double bill with last week’s Mother Mary – another film in which Anne Hathaway has to deal with fashion problems in the company of an estranged colleague (although that film’s devil was slightly more literal…).
- The Devil Wears Prada 2 on IMDB
- The Devil Wears Prada 2 on Rotten Tomatoes
Hokum
Horror writer Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) travels to Ireland to scatter his parents’ ashes. But the local residents warn him that the inn he’s staying at is haunted by a witch.
This looks like a lot of fun. Blending elements of folk horror (an outsider visiting a remote community and falling foul of their local superstitions) and the classic haunted house story, Hokum makes effective use of sound and lighting to evoke a creeping sense of dread and magic. The trailer avoids showing too much of the spirit stalking the inn, but you get the sense from the content of the voiceover and general vibe of the film that this is a proper old-fashioned witch of the sort that haunts children’s stories and isn’t shy of slaughtering the occasional goat for dramatic effect. Adam Scott has had plenty of experience in running down unnerving corridors in Severance, and he neatly fits the folk horror mould of the sophisticated modern man failing to integrate into a more traditional society.
At the time of writing this has a very solid 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, with praise for Adam Scott’s performance and the effectiveness of the horror elements.
- Hokum on IMDB
- Hokum on Rotten Tomatoes
Wild Foxes
Wild Foxes sees promising young boxer Camille (Samuel Kircher) suffer a horrific life-changing accident. When his body has finally recovered he’s eager to return to his training, but finds he’s suffering from a medically inexplicable pain in his arm that prevents him from reaching his former potential. In a sport with very little tolerance for weakness, surrounded by his testosterone-full peers, and with the championship fast approaching, can he figure out the problem and get the help he needs?
This is a French film and the feature-length debut of director Valery Carnoy. It has a lot of potential for some serious commentaries around mental health issues and how they’re impacted by machismo culture in young men and in sport in general, and it looks like it gets those messages across well. Even just in the trailer, the brotherly friendship between Camille and his best friend Matteo feels organic and real, and its dissolution in the second half carries a genuine sense of tragedy.
Whether you’re a fan of foreign indie cinema or dramatic sport movies, this film will likely have something you’ll enjoy.
- Wild Foxes on IMDB
- Wild Foxes on Rotten Tomatoes
If you only see one film this week…
Three very different films out this week so it really comes down to personal taste – and personally, I’m most looking forward to Hokum.
Still in cinemas and worth a watch
Trailer of the Week
Between Barbarian and Weapons, Zach Cregger has made a name for himself as a creator of original, entertaining horror films, with Weapons even earning an Oscar for Amy Madigan’s villainous turn as Gladys. So it will be interesting to see his take on classic zombie game franchise Resident Evil. Adaptations of Raccoon City’s infestation of walking corpses and warped mutants have not had the most successful track record (the laser grid scene in the first Milla Jovovich film sticks in the memory more than any of the undead), but they have a certain schlocky nostalgia. Instead of a team of military experts, Cregger’s version focuses on a courier (Austin Adams) trying to survive. The trailer has plenty of nastiness, including bloated bodies in the sewers, kamikaze corpses diving off rooves, and some sort of sinister synchronised dance sequence in a dark doorway. We’ll find out how it compares to the ’00s films and the original games when Resident Evil crashes into cinemas in September.
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