Director: RaMell Ross Starring: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor Certificate: 12A Run Time: 140 mins
Nickel Boys is RaMell Ross’ narrative feature directorial debut, previously known for his 2018 Oscar-nominated documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening. An adaptation of the 2019 novel of the same name by Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys tells the story story of Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse), a young African-American living in a segregated Tallahassee, Florida. He excels at school and is accepted into a tuition-free accelerated study program at a historically black school. Unfortunately, he accepts a lift from a man driving a stolen car while hitchhiking to campus and the police send him to Nickel Academy, a reform school notorious for its abusive treatment of students. There, he meets Turner (Brandon Wilson) and despite their initially opposite ideals, become friends.
The film is shot in a first-person point-of-view so we see the plot unfold through the eyes of Elwood (the perspective is then shared with Turner in the film’s second half). That’s certainly an unconventional way to tell a story and stands Nickel Boys apart from more conventional historical drama biopics.
Unfortunately, despite its novel filmmaking technique, I found Nickel Boys to be very dull and I think that first-person point-of-view decision is to blame. It detracts from the important story being told, which tackles some incredibly heavy themes, but the film never conveys its emotions. The stilted script doesn’t flow in a natural way and and I found it very difficult to connect with any of the characters. None of the performances worked for me, even Hamish Linklater who made such a powerful impression in Midnight Mass. The film is also drastically overlong at 140 minutes and a generic title card revealing some images of the true events feels emotionally manipulative – especially for a film that’s trying to defy convention. The only real plus side is Jomo Fray’s sporadically stirring cinematography, especially a scene of Elwood and Turner conversing underneath a window that’s featured in the theatrical release poster.
I really wanted to like Nickel Boys, especially considering the rapturous response it has received. But I found it to be an patience-testing exercise in style over substance and the novel filming style robbed the film of any emotional impact.
With 2024 now at a close, it’s time to reflect back on the year just gone and unveil my top film picks. 2024 was an interesting year in film – on the one hand, it had one of the strongest Awards seasons in many a year (many of which will be featuring in this list) and the films that delivered really hit the spot. But there were also a number of crushing disappointments, from sequels such as Alien: Romulus and Deadpool and Wolverine to career lows for directors like M. Night Shyamalan with Trap and J. C. Chandor with Kraven the Hunter.
In this first of two articles, I’ll rank numbers 20 to 11. Stay tuned for part two, where I’ll unveil my top ten films of the year. But first a few honourable mentions that didn’t quite make the top 20 – Red Rooms, Conclave, The Beekeeper and Salem’s Lot (yes, seriously for those final two).
20) The Iron Claw
Beginning proceedings is The Iron Claw and although it’s Sean Durkin’s weakest effort to date in that it’s far more conventional than Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest, this is still a largely gripping and grim recount of the Von Erich family, who were beset by premature tragedies. The film’s bolstered by some terrific performances, with Zac Efron reliably brilliant as Kevin, who has noble and instinctual family values but struggles to carve a life with his own ambitions. Efron has had a fascinating career after his High School Musical breakthrough, and like with his chilling portrayal of Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, proves he is a versatile actor with buckets of range. Holt McCallany, who is often lumped with supporting roles in action films such as Wrath of Man, gives a career-best performance as the patriarch, and Maura Tierney is also quietly brilliant as the quiet and sullen mother, who’s clearly faced her own despair.
The first half of the film is pretty standard wrestling fare, chock-full with the sub-genre’s generic constructs, until the darker elements are introduced at the half-way mark. There’s an excellent near-surreal ending sequence that won me over and the film’s handsomely shot with a smoky, grey quality by Hungarian cinematographer Mátyás Erdély.
Although this religious psychological horror starring Sydney Sweeney as a troubled young nun takes a while to get going, once it shifts into gear, Immaculate is a gonzo, gleefully blood-soaked riptide. The last forty-five minutes are particularly memorable, with a series of wild twists and turns, with more than a few influences from Dario Argento and Roman Polanski. Director Michael Mohan knows how to build suspense and pile on the dread and the wince-inducing gore in its final act more than earns it its 18-certificate. The film looks a lot more expensive than it is and it’s beautifully shot by DP Elisha Christian. You’ll be left gasping for breath in its closing moments.
Although it’s not as strong, The First Omen came out a few weeks later and follows eerily similar themes – it’s worth a watch too.
One of my most memorable cinema-going experiences of the year, Anora is the new Palme D’Or winning film by Sean Baker. Other than Mikey Madison’s hypnotic lead performance as the titular Brooklyn stripper, I hated the first 45 minutes of this film. But when two men knock on a mansion door after Anora’s drink and drug-fuelled journey with Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the 21-year-old-son of a Russian oligarch, the narrative takes a different direction and the rest of the 139 minute film had me grinning with its breathless fireball energy and wit. In retrospect, the first 45 minutes are needed to get you to despise the characters for the rest of it to work, so stay with it if you’re feeling the same way. It’s a film where characters are consistently pulled from pillar to post but there’s also a stark tenderness to its humanity and Baker portrays a vivid contrast between the rich and poor. It’s beautifully shot by Drew Daniels, who lends the film its disorientingly frenetic edge. Apart from Madison, Yura Borisov and Karen Karagulian are the other standouts of the cast, especially Borisov who makes such a strong impression despite not having many lines. Anora is ultimately an excellent film from Sean Baker and quite possibly his best work.
It’s a real shame that what is probably Clint Eastwood’s last film got bizarrely and unjustifiably buried by Warner Bros. It’s their loss because this legal thriller is an excellent effort from the nonagenarian filmmaker, which follows recovering alcoholic Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) who is summoned for jury service where he realises he may have been responsible for the death he’s adjudicating on. What initially seems like a fairly routine, low-profile case gradually turns into a crime with plenty of holes. A morally ambiguous film that asks its audience what they would do in the main character’s shoes, Jonathan Abrams’ script does a good job of messing with its audience’s minds in creating doubt of what’s being portrayed on-screen. The film also questions the imperfect nature of the justice system, even if it’s rather unsubtle. But Eastwood does a better job of analysing the biases that certain characters bring into the courtroom, from the lawyers defending and prosecuting the accused to the backstories of the jury members. Nicholas Hoult makes for an excellent lead and we’re never sure whether we can fully side with him or not, despite making a compelling case for the decisions he makes.
I never expected a John Green adaptation to rank among my best films of the year – Paper Towns and The Fault In Our Stars were both ghastly – but I loved this. Sensitively directed by Hannah Marks, the ever-reliable (well, apart from Alien: Romulus…) Isabela Merced is fantastic as Aza, a 16-year-old struggling with OCD who tries to reconnect with her childhood crush. The chemistry she shares with her best friend Daisy (Cree) is terrific and the script is sharp, deftly balancing humour, wit and heart. Marks deftly portrays what it’s like to experience this disorder and the sense of achievement when characters overcome their obstacles in this film is commendable. I was gripped from start to finish and although it’s a film you’ll need to seek out, I highly recommend it.
15) Gladiator II
I had low expectations for this long-awaited sequel, having thought the 2000 Best Picture winning original was merely good, and returning director Ridley Scott has a chequered record with historical epics. Fortunately, Gladiator II is an excellent sequel and although it shares some similar story beats to the original, it shakes things up more than enough to avoid it being a simple rehash. At its height, it almost has a soap opera quality (much in the same vein as House of Gucci and Napoleon) but in a good way. There’s an immense pleasure in anticipating how the different characters are going to eventually clash with their various motivations, and David Scarpa’s script sets them up well. Some of the characters are gleefully horrible and the cast are more than game for it. Scott’s also concocted some thrilling (if wildly historically inaccurate set-pieces with sharks and killer monkeys) that lean into the gore – this is very much a film about revenge and retribution. It’s also vividly shot by returning cinematographer John Mathieson, who lends the film a rich colour palette. That Ridley Scott can still be directing a sword-and-sandals sequel like this with so much energy in his late eighties is nothing short of miraculous.
Rebel Ridge is a crime thriller by Jeremy Saulnier, his first film in six years after Hold The Dark. Having proved quite the accomplished director, Rebel Ridge may be his best yet – a gripping thriller that examines police injustice with a deliciously mean streak about it, even if it’s slightly overlong and peaks in its first act. But I still had a grin plastered on my face throughout. Aaron Pierre is brilliant as Terry, an ex-Marine who’s intercepted by two corrupt policemen while cycling to Shelby Springs to post bail for his imprisoned cousin. Don Johnson is deliciously snarky as the crooked Chief of Police and there are some terrific chase sequences, cementing why Saulnier is one of the best in the revenge thriller genre.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a very pleasant surprise – an excellent legacy sequel that’s not far off the quality of the original, showcasing Tim Burton at his best. The script by Alfred Gough and Mark Millar is razor-sharp and full of charm, with lots of laughs to be had. Although some have criticised this sequel for being overstuffed, I thought the various elements really worked and there’s excitement in knowing that all of the different storylines are inevitably going to collide. The film’s visually arresting too, with lots of physical effects and I particularly admired an early body horror sequence where a character staples body parts together. Danny Elfman turns in a typically romping and swooning score that keeps the film fast-paced. Michael Keaton’s reliably excellent as the grotesque bio-exorcist, in the role that arguably launched his career. It’s also refreshing to see Winona Ryder, who hasn’t taken a leading role in a mainstream film in quite a while. Burton proves he’s still flowing with the creative juices that left such an impression on his early work and I hope the strong reception to this film inspires him to continue developing wholly original pieces.
MaXXXine is the third instalment in Ti West’s X series and a direct sequel to X. It’s surreal to think what was originally a relatively low-key release is now a full-blown film series, with West having originally shot X (which I loved) and Pearl (fine, but overrated) back-to-back. MaXXXine is a thoroughly enjoyable, if uneven third instalment. Like its predecessors, West experiments with exploring a different horror sub-genre – in this case, Giallo horror. It unexpectedly shares many of the story beats of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood but in a thrilling way that isn’t derivative. The energetic score by Tyler Bates is brilliant and is probably a career-best. The film’s also beautifully shot by Eliot Rocket, who really captures the neon, seedy 80’s Hollywood aesthetic. There’s some very entertaining performances across the board. Mia Goth is reliably strong but Kevin Bacon steals the show as a seedy private investigator, resplendent with gold teeth. Giancarlo Esposito is also a highlight as Maxine’s agent with an outrageous haircut. I really enjoyed MaXXXine and although it’s a little shambolically crafted, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had a big grin on my face throughout.
My expectations were very high after the 19 year wait since the masterpiece that was The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Vengeance Most Fowl is a more than worthy follow-up. This is an excellent sequel with plenty of laughs and a typically sharp and witty script. The rapport between Wallace and Gromit is as strong as ever and the film has a lot to say on the reliance of AI and automation, the resurgence of old technology and police incompetence. There’s some fabulous action sequences (especially a climactic boat chase) and the film’s typically brimming with small details to pick up on future rewatches. Returning villain Feathers McGraw steals the show with some delicious gags and Ben Whitehead (replacing the late Peter Sallis) fits in seamlessly as Wallace.
I don’t think it’s quite as strong as The Curse of the Were-Rabbit though – Vengeance Most Fowl is decidedly smaller-scale and there’s a surprising lack of cheese jokes (although the film makes up for it with plenty of other gags). Otherwise, this is yet another Wallace and Gromit adventure that’s impossible to resist and it does nothing to tarnish their revered reputation.
Director: Robert Eggers Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe Certificate: 15 Run Time: 132 mins
Nosferatu is the new Robert Eggers film, one of the most exciting auteurs working today whose made a name for himself with thoroughly well-researched, period-correct films, with authentic scripts and stunning visuals. I loved The Witch, his fearsomely original and unsettling folk horror debut. I admired but didn’t love his next films – The Lighthouse and The Northman. A remake of F. W. Murnau’s 1922 German Expressionist silent film, Eggers has long-publicised his adoration for the blood-thirsty vampire tale and was originally going to make it after The Witch before deciding to delay its production to get it right.
If you’re familiar with the original, or Bram Stoker’s Dracula, then there’s no surprises story-wise. Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp play the married Hutter couple, Thomas and Ellen, who live in Wisborg, Germany. Thomas is an aspiring estate agent, who is sent by Herr Knock (Simon McBurney) to travel to Transylvania’s Carpathian Mountains to sell a decrepit stately home to the reclusive Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård). But Orlok has a more sinister motive.
It pains me to say that Nosferatu is unfortunately a crushing disappointment and a case of style over substance. The style is undoubtedly the biggest positive, with the film beautifully shot Eggers’ favoured cinematographer Jarin Blaschke. Many of the visually arresting images are akin to paintings, with my two standouts a shot of a horse and rider traipsing their way through a forest in the twinkling night and a crepuscular figure’s decaying body over a sea of blood in a bed. The creature design of Count Orlok is also striking and a construction that only Eggers could dream of. After dazzling as Pennywise in It, the unrecognisable Bill Skarsgård stuns as the parasitic Orlok, with an unsettling voice he worked to lower by an octave for the role. Robin Carolan’s swooning score is also brilliant, with recognisable and haunting themes developing as the film progresses.
Sadly, that’s where the positives end. Nosfetaru’s most significant problem is the utterly erratic pacing. Eggers races through the first hour and fails to establish the ensemble cast or convey how epic the journey is to Transylvania. This was something Werner Herzog excelled at in his Klaus Kinski-fronted 1979 remake, Nosferatu the Vampyre, with beautiful images of the dangerous, mountainous terrain the estate agent exhaustedly travels through to reach the isolated castle. The local Romani community who plead with Thomas not to continue with his quest are glossed over and there’s a real lack of tension between Thomas and Orlok, with Eggers impatient to bring the vampire back to Germany. The voyage back on the ghost ship is also rushed and once the film’s back on German soil, Orlok’s invasive hold over the town is protracted. What’s most peculiar is that Herzog’s 1979 remake also suffers from a languorous pace but Eggers’ film has the advantage of being half an hour longer but fails to develop a sense of dread or tension.
There’s also some seriously wonky performances amongst the star-studded cast. Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp have clearly put in a lot of effort, but they lack chemistry together and Hoult’s Thomas is particularly underdeveloped – I never felt pity for him once he’s under Orlok’s hold. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin are both terrible as the Harding’s, also lacking chemistry and being subject to some pretty perfunctory dialogue. Even Willem Dafoe fails to impress, content to simply repeat his Poor Things shtick as Albin Eberhart Von Franz (an Abraham Van Helsing equivalent), a controversial Swiss philosopher whom Eggers’ script resorts to him being an exposition device. Fortunately, Simon McBurney as the repulsive Herr Knock and Ralph Ineson as a well-meaning doctor fare well.
You’d think for all Eggers’ passion that he’d try and do something innovative and justify his vision. But instead, this is a film that simply retreads its forebears (there’s even heavy lifting from various Dracula adaptations, too). By the time we reach the signature sequence with Orlok’s shadow reaching out for his victim reflected on a wall, all I could stifle was a groan. I was never gripped by the film, nor did I find it frightening and Eggers’ script, while period-correct, is strangely wordy and leaves nothing to the imagination. Murnau’s 1922 original didn’t just impress as a standalone film but functions as one of the horror genre’s most important staples, its influence felt throughout the medium’s history. While Eggers has made a film that repeats its visuals and narrative beats, that’s all he’s managed to achieve – aside from a handful of impressive elements, there’s strangely little to justify or show for the filmmaker’s passion.
Director: Nick Park & Merlin Crossingham Starring: (voices of) Ben Whitehead, Peter Kay, Lauren Patel, Reece Shearsmith Certificate: U Run Time: 79 mins
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is the new Aardman film featuring the good-natured cheese-loving inventor and his intelligent anthropomorphic beagle, in what’s been a lengthy wait. The last time we saw the lovable clay-based duo was in A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008) and this is the first feature-length film since The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), which I consider to be a masterpiece. With Peter Sallis (the voice of Wallace) sadly passing away in 2017, he’s now been replaced by Ben Whitehead. This new film also sees the return of the villainous Feathers McGraw from The Wrong Trousers (1995), a scheming penguin who enacts his revenge on the duo by reprogramming Wallace’s new invention – Norbot, a robotic garden gnome – to an ‘evil’ setting.
And it’s another triumph – Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is an excellent sequel with plenty of laughs and a typically sharp and witty script. The rapport between Wallace and Gromit is as strong as ever and the film has a lot to say on the reliance of AI and automation, the resurgence of old technology and police incompetence. There’s some fabulous action sequences (especially a climactic boat chase) and the film’s typically brimming with small details to pick up on future rewatches. Feathers McGraw steals the show yet again with some delicious gags and Ben Whitehead fits in seamlessly as Wallace – you’d be hard-pressed to tell it’s not Peter Sallis.
That said, after two viewings, I don’t think it’s quite as strong as The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Vengeance Most Fowl is decidedly smaller-scale and there’s a surprising lack of cheese jokes (although the film makes up for it with plenty of other gags). This is yet another Wallace and Gromit adventure that’s impossible to resist and it does nothing to tarnish their revered reputation.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra Starring: Taron Egerton, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler, Theo Rossi, Logan Marshall-Green, Jason Bateman Certificate: 15 Run Time: 119 mins
Carry-On is an action thriller directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, returning to the genre he’s most comfortable in. After directing a spate of Liam Neeson-fronted actioners on various modes of transport, Collet-Serra progressed to bigger budget fare and made Jungle Cruise and Black Adam. Set on Christmas Eve, Carry-On follows Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) who lives with his girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson). They both work at Los Angeles International Airport, and Ethan feels pretty unfulfilled at his TSA job, after he failed to get into the police force after concealing his father’s criminal history. He manages to talk his supervisor into manning the baggage scanning machine. Well, he couldn’t have picked a more testing day to demonstrate his merits because he comes into contact with a group of terrorists who threaten him, as they try to get a bag filled with Novichok nerve agent through and onto a plane.
Unfortunately, Carry-On is content to just go through the motions with its workmanlike direction and an ear-scraping script. It also requires one to seriously suspend disbelief with plot holes you could drive a truck through. The usually charismatic Egerton fails to make much of an impression and the rest of the cast also struggle to register. The biggest disappointment is undoubtedly Jason Bateman, who I had high expectations for, given he’s impressed in the past whenever he’s diverted from comedic fare with excellent performances in The Gift and Air. Unfortunately, his villain is overly talky and lacks nuance, resulting in a real lack of tension.
The far-fetched action sequences are shot with an annoyingly glossy sheen, and Los Angeles airport is portrayed as being almost clinically clean. A thankless and implausible sub-plot featuring Danielle Deadwyler as a detective further presses on the brakes of this inert affair and Lorne Balfe’s score isn’t memorable in the slightest.
Christmas Eve turmoil at an airport has been done to great success in the past, with films such as Die Hard 2. But Carry-On never manages to reach the heights of the films it’s inspired by and while it’s just about watchable if you suspend disbelief, that’s not good enough amongst the competition.
Director: J. C. Chandor Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, Russell Crowe Certificate: 15 Run Time: 127 mins
Kraven The Hunter is the latest in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and the first live-action appearance of the supervillain. Unfortunately, none of the five previous instalments of Sony’s shared universe series have hit the mark so far – all three Venom films were awful, as was Morbius. And then, while Madame Web is undoubtedly the most enjoyable of the lot, it’s only because it’s so-bad-it’s-good. Despite over two years of delays though, I’ve always held out hope for Kraven The Hunter. Why? Because it’s directed by J. C. Chandor, who is one of the most exciting original directors working today, responsible for Margin Call, All Is Lost and Triple Frontier, as well as A Most Violent Year, which I would consider one of my top five films of the 2010s.
Of course, not all directors succeed when they transition to mainstream fare. On the one hand, Jordan Vogt-Roberts and Taika Waititi’s fingerprints are all overKong: Skull Island and Thor: Ragnarok but there is precious little of James Mangold or Nia DaCosta in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Marvels, for example.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays the titular villain, and the film opts for an origins story opening where we see how a young Sergei is mortally wounded protecting his younger brother, Dmitri, from a lion. Sergei is found by a girl named Calypso, who having been forewarned she would intervene in an accident, heals him with a serum that gives him animalistic attributes. When Sergei becomes an adult sixteen years later, he tracks down criminals and crosses them off his list.
While there are some interesting ideas here and there and it’s probably the best film in Sony’s shared universe, Kraven The Hunter is an unfortunate disappointment that is clearly the product of major studio interference. While many superhero films have taken the origins story route, the meat and bones of Kraven the Hunter’s structure is good but it’s plagued by an utterly atrocious script – the trio of Richard Wenk, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway are to blame. The visual effects are also embarrassingly bad, with obvious CGI animals and backdrops, as well as awful ADR. You wouldn’t think this should be a problem when you have a $130 million budget. The film’s blandly shot by Ben Davis and Benjamin Wallfisch’s score doesn’t make much of an impression.
The performances are a mixed bag. There’s typically two types of Aaron Taylor-Johnson performances. When he’s in the right role, such as Kick-Ass or Nocturnal Animals, he’s excellent. But he’s often miscast and when that happens in films such as Godzilla, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Tenet, he’s very wooden. This is the rare performance where he walks the middle line. He clearly puts his all into the character but is saddled by poor and cliched dialogue. Both A Most Violent Year veterans Alessandro Nivola and Christopher Abbott are clearly making an effort as the villains, The Rhino and The Foreigner. While I admired Nivola’s more realistic interpretation of the villain that’s a complete 180 from Paul Giamatti’s mechanised portrayal in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the performance is once again a victim of the script and some dreadful visual effects.
Members of the dreadful performances club include Oscar-winners Ariana DeBose and Russell Crowe. DeBose is completely miscast as Calypso and has no chemistry whatsoever with Taylor-Johnson and Crowe is laughably awful as Sergei’s drug-trafficking crime boss father, replete with an unconvincing Russian accent. Fred Hechinger, who can currently be seen in Gladiator II, comes away with his reputation unscathed as Sergei’s brother, Dmitri, who isn’t very well developed.
On the plus side, I liked the standalone approach the film takes, refusing to tie itself into other Marvel or Sony properties, save for a brief mention on The Daily Bugle newspaper. I also admire that Chandor went for a 15 / R-rating, which is what the violent villain deserves. While there’s blood-spray and gore to the kills, unfortunately they’re repetitive and the violence is never lingered on – I wish the film leaned in harder on its rating. There’s also a couple of effective quieter moments of character building sprinkled in and I liked Chandor’s attempt to ground the film in realism.
It’s a real shame that Kraven The Hunter isn’t the blood-drenched slamdunk it should have been. I genuinely don’t understand why Sony fail to trust their filmmakers and water down the final product. But it’s not as awful as other entries in this series (albeit the bar is set low) and not that it will happen because of the negative reception but I’m confident Chandor could have made an interesting sequel if he was free of the studio shackles. Unfortunately, Kraven The Hunter is a poor film with clear signs of studio interference that could have been so much more, and an unfortunate stain on Chandor’s until-now electric career.
Director: Edward Berger Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, Isabella Rossellini Certificate: 12A Run Time: 120 mins
Conclave is a mystery thriller by Edward Berger, who directed All Quiet On The Western Front, which won four Oscars but I found it to be rather overrated. Based on a 2016 novel by Robert Harris, the film opens with the Pope dying of a heart attack and Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with organising a papal conclave to elect a successor. However, Lawrence quickly finds himself investigating secrets and scandals about each of the candidates. They include Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci), an ambitious American liberal, Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow), a Canadian moderate with a secret, Goffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), an Italian reactionary right-winger and Joseph Adeyemi (Lycian Msamati), a Nigerian candidate with homophobic views.
Not dissimilar from many popular recent elections, Conclave is about deciding who is the least worst option and that’s what makes it rather entertaining. You’ll need to suspend disbelief (especially with its many twists) but if you’re after an overripe thriller filled with catty remarks, this delivers. Ralph Fiennes is reliably excellent as the overseer, who is also standing in the election and throughout the film, you’re constantly working out whether he has secret ambitions and if he’s as impartial as he should be. Sergio Castellitto, who was fantastic as the villainous King Miraz in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, turns his performance up to eleven as Tedesco and Isabella Rossellini also stands out as the head caterer and housekeeper who doesn’t have time for aimless chitchat.
The jittery score by Volker Bertelmann (Hauschka) is fantastic and he crafts many memorable themes that add to the urgency of the election. Stéphane Fontaine lusciously shoots the film too, with excellent use of light and shadow to underscore the theme of corruption.
But as entertaining as Conclave is, I’m not sure it’s quite the awards material it looks like it may become. None of the performances are career-best work from anyone (as committed as they are) and it isn’t particularly profound. Treat Conclave as the rousing thriller it is where old men in mitres run around making snide remarks and backstab each other, but nothing more.
Director: Ridley Scott Starring: Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Lior Raz, Derek Jacobi, Connie Nielsen, Denzel Washington Certificate: 15 Run Time: 148 mins
Gladiator II is the long-awaited sequel to the Best Picture winning 2000 original. Directed once again by Ridley Scott, this sequel picks up sixteen years after Marcus Aurelius’ (the late Richard Harris) death in the first film. His grandson, Lucius (Paul Mescal) lives under the alias ‘Hanno’, with his wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen) in Numidia. Their peace is short-lived after the Romans invade, led by General Acacius (Pedro Pascal). Hanno swears revenge against Acacius, becoming a gladiator for Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a former slave who has his own sights on the throne.
Ridley Scott’s hit-and-miss when it comes to historical epics. On the one hand, he’s made hits such as Gladiator and The Last Duel but on the other hand are the disasters that are Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood and Napoleon. While Gladiator was an entertaining film, I wouldn’t have called it Oscar material and there are many other Ridley Scott films I’d have preferred he received awards recognition for. This sequel’s gone through a lengthy production period, with musician Nick Cave initially writing a script that saw Russell Crowe’s Maximus battle the gods in purgatory that was rejected. The story that Scott’s ultimately settled on is far more conventional – was the 24 year wait worth it?
Gladiator II is an excellent sequel and although it shares some similar story beats to the original, it shakes things up more than enough to avoid it being a simple rehash. At its height, it almost has a soap opera quality (much in the same vein as House of Gucci and Napoleon) but in a good way. There’s an immense pleasure in anticipating how the different characters are going to eventually clash with their various motivations, and David Scarpa’s script sets them up well. Some of the characters are gleefully horrible and the cast are more than game for it. Scott’s also concocted some thrilling (if wildly historically inaccurate set-pieces with sharks and killer monkeys) that lean into the gore – this is very much a film about revenge and retribution. It’s also vividly shot by returning cinematographer John Mathieson, who lends the film a rich colour palette.
Paul Mescal makes for a brilliant lead, almost channeling Oliver Reed in his Shakespearean delivery. Although he’s not going to receive the same level of acclaim as Russell Crowe, I predict Mescal will be fondly remembered for this role as time passes. Denzel Washington’s brilliant as Macrinus and steals his scenes as the influential and complexly written slave trader. Pedro Pascal is another highlight, who’s also written in a multi-layered fashion, who we initially regard from a villainous perspective but are then later asked to view him in a different light. Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger are also excellent as the mentally unstable Emperors and they make for refreshingly different villains from Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus in the original. And then when Matt Lucas turns up as a ceremonial host for the gladiatorial battles, you know this isn’t a film that’s taking itself very seriously.
That Ridley Scott can still be directing a sword-and-sandals sequel like this with so much energy in his late eighties is nothing short of miraculous. Gladiator II is a film to watch on the biggest possible screen and it’s a compelling sequel that I think matches the original. There’s a real energy to it with a more complex set-up to it than the original and the thrill in watching how all the characters play each other result in a hugely enjoyable sequel.
Director: Sean Baker Starring: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Aleksei Serebryakov, Darya Ekamasova Certificate: 18 Run Time: 139 mins
Anora is the new film by Sean Baker and it won the Palme D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Anora ‘Ani’ Mikheeva (Mikey Madison) works as a stripper in Brooklyn – so far, so Sean Baker. Since she has Russian heritage, her boss and introduces her to Ivan ‘Vanya’ Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn), the 21-year-old son of a Russian oligarch. Although Vanya is supposed to be in the US to study, he prefers to be unruly by playing videogames, getting drunk and high every second of the day in his family’s mansion. He quickly takes a shine to Anora, paying her $15,000 for her to stay with him for a week. Things begin to escalate.
Other than Mikey Madison’s fantastic performance, I found the first 45 minutes of Anora really testing. I hated Vanya and his similarly childish friends who run around clubs, bars and hotels as if they own the place, wreaking destruction on their path. But when two men knock on Vanya’s mansion door one day, the narrative takes a different direction and the rest of the 139 minute film had me grinning with its breathless fireball energy and wit. In retrospect, the first 45 minutes are needed to get you to despise the characters for the rest of it to work, so stay with it if you’re feeling the same way. It’s a film where characters are consistently pulled from pillar to post but there’s also a stark tenderness to its humanity and Baker portrays a vivid contrast between the rich and poor. It’s beautifully shot by Drew Daniels, who lends the film its disorientingly frenetic edge.
Mikey Madison, who was one of Charles Manson’s accomplices in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, is fantastic as Anora and thoroughly deserving of awards attention. She has bundles of empathy and despite her demeaning work selling her body, she knows how to get what she wants. Yura Borisov is also brilliant as Igor, a Russian henchman with morals with a similarly modest financial background as Anora who makes such an impression despite not having many lines. Karen Karagulian is brilliant as Toros, an Armenian handler, who’s mania knows no bounds when his career is jeopardised. And although I hated the character, there’s no doubt Mark Eydelshteyn satisfies the brief as Vanya.
Anora is ultimately an excellent film from Sean Baker and quite possibly his best work. It made for quite the memorable cinema experience, especially my frustrated reaction to its first act, only to u-turn once it takes a different direction. That’s what makes Anora quite the emotional rollercoaster and it’s undoubtedly a fearsomely original piece of work.
Director: Clint Eastwood Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Chris Messina, Zoey Deutch, Kiefer Sutherland Certificate: 12A Run Time: 114 mins
Juror No. 2 is the new Clint Eastwood film and possibly his last. A legal thriller, the film opens with Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) being summoned for jury service, with his wife Ally (Zoey Deutch) due to give birth any day. A recovering alcoholic, Justin soon realises he may have been responsible for the death he’s a member of the jury for and his guilt-ridden conscious starts to affect his judgement. Eastwood’s as adept behind the camera as he is in front of it. Unfortunately, Cry Macho, his previous film bombed at the box office (despite being excellent) and Warner Bros initially envisioned this film as a direct-to-streaming release on Max. Sacrilege. The studio since decided to release the film in fewer than 50 cinemas in the US and not report on the box office results, a peculiar approach for such the prolific nonagenarian director.
Warner Bros may well come to regret this decision because Juror No. 2 is another excellent Eastwood effort and is akin to a lower-profile melding of 12 Angry Men and Anatomy of a Fall. What initially seems like a fairly routine, low-profile case gradually turns into a crime with plenty of holes. A morally ambiguous film that asks its audience what they would do in the main character’s situation, Jonathan Abrams’ script does a good job of messing with its audience’s minds in creating doubt of what’s being portrayed on-screen. The film also questions the imperfect nature of the justice system, even if it’s rather unsubtle. But Eastwood does a better job of analysing the biases that certain characters bring into the courtroom, from the lawyers defending and prosecuting the accused to the backstories of the jury members.
Nicholas Hoult makes for an excellent lead and we’re never sure whether we can fully side with him or not, despite making a compelling case for the decisions he makes. Zoey Deutch also makes an impact as his trusting wife and the disappointment she conveys when he takes a wrong decision. Toni Collette, in a rather strange reuniting with her About A Boy co-star, is reliably strong as the prosecuting Assistant District Attorney Faith Killebrew, who seems somewhat impenetrable in her opinion initially but then starts to show a different side. The script also does an excellent job in how the jury members’ backgrounds clash and we can empathise why they may feel a certain way.
While Juror No. 2 isn’t overlong, I think its message would be even more impactful if it were 15 minutes shorter. The film seems like it has multiple endings and a tighter run time would strengthen its messaging. As is typical for many of Eastwood’s films, its direction is rather workmanlike but the film works for its simplicity. It’s nowhere near one of Eastwood’s best but Juror No. 2 is a typically thoughtful piece from the multi-faceted director and if this is indeed his last film, it’s a good one to go out on.
The Film Meister 
