Director: Benny Safdie Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten, Oleksandr Usyk Certificate: 15 Run Time: 123 mins
The Smashing Machine is a biographical sports drama directed by Benny Safdie, his first time behind the camera without his brother Josh – the duo received acclaim for their collaborations with films such as Heaven Knows What, Good Time and Uncut Gems. Dwayne Johnson stars as former amateur wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr, with the film taking place between 1997 and 2000. At the start, he’s yet to lose a match and is being coached by fellow MMA fighter and best friend Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader) while stumbling in and out of drug use before competing against the fearsome Igor Vovchanchyn (Oleksandry Usyk). He also has a complicated relationship with his girlfriend, Dawn (Emily Blunt).
The Smashing Machine is a fascinating sports biopic with some terrific performances, and hats off to Safdie for deviating from the conventional biopic formula. The film has a cinéma vérité quality to it (not dissimilar from Darren Aronofsky‘s The Wrestler or Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher) and Safdie isn’t afraid to really dive deep into the complicated psyche of the heavyweight star – I was gripped throughout. The fight sequences are authentically brutal and there’s an interesting jazz-infused score by Nala Sinephro.
This is easily the best performance of Dwayne Johnson’s career. He excels as Kerr, and I found it fascinating how he’s often incredibly sweet and polite from the outside, but you know there’s a screw loose that could snap at any moment. He gets Kerr’s mannerisms spot on and I really felt for the character as the odds begin to stack against him, Johnson playing him with a tinge of sadness and regret.But it’s not just Johnson’s film. Emily Blunt is excellent too as his high-maintenance girlfriend who also has her demons, but Ryan Bader stands out as Coleman, who has to balance his own career while trying to keep Kerr under check too.
I suspect The Smashing Machine will largely be shrugged as a film and will be remembered more for Dwayne Johnson’s performance. But that’s a real shame because there’s a lot more going for it and Safdie really succeeds with diving into the inner psyche of the troubled fighter. Some have labelled the story as unremarkable, but that’s exactly the point – this is a film that’s about a fall from greatness and how a complicated individual such as Kerr navigates relationships and mental obstacles. This film really succeeds by looking past the sport’s shimmery gleam and how to accept and make the most of a mundane routine.
Director: Tim Mielants Starring: Cillian Murphy, Tracey Ullman, Jay Lycurgo, Simbi Ajikawo, Emily Watson Certificate: 15 Run Time: 108 mins
Steve is a drama that centres around a headteacher of a boarding school for troubled boys called Stanton Wood in 1995. The school is effectively a last chance saloon for the sweary and rowdy boys, instead of prison. The film’s directed by Tim Mielants, who reunites with Cillian Murphy after last year’s Small Things Like These, which I found very overrated. It’s an adaptation of a 2003 novella called Shy by Max Porter (who writes the script here), which was told from the perspective of one of the 16-year-old students, Shy (played here by Jay Lycurgo). For Steve, that shifts to Cillian Murphy’s headteacher. The film opens as we see the very run-down Steve heading to school, where a local news crew are there for the day to film a piece, framing the question whether the teachers are doing good work, or if these boys are a lost cause and the taxpayer shouldn’t be wasting their money on keeping the school going.
Steve is a poignant and engaging film with a standout Cillian Murphy performance, as the weary headteacher battling his own demons. There’s a complexity to how Mileants gets us to side with the teenagers and overstretched staff, and it’s fascinating to see how the film crew take advantage of the situation. This is enunciated by Robrecht Heyvaert’s kinetic cinematography, who disorientingly lenses the school. It’s easy to see straightaway the inevitable conclusion the film barrels towards, but the staff are desperate to make the best of it – if they can’t set these teenagers on the correct course, no-one can.
Outside of the terrific Cillian Murphy performance, Tracey Ullman, Simbi Ajikawo and Emily Watson are all excellent as other teachers – Ullman in particular in an uncharacteristically serious role as the school’s deputy head. There’s some impressionable performances among the teenagers too, with Jay Lycurgo standing out as Shy, with the character describing himself as “angry and bored” when asked to define himself by the news crew in three words. But it’s a shame the character doesn’t have a little more meat to the bone – yes, Mielants clearly portrays him as a complex but lost cause, an individual who recognises what he’s done wrong, but the film could have dug deeper.
Steve is very close to being an excellent film – this is a mature and moving piece with some top-notch performances. It’s great to see Cillian Murphy opting for the smaller types of roles he found his original success from off the back of his Best Actor Oscar win for Oppenheimer. I just wish Steve had a little more ferocity up its sleeve for it to really shine.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti Certificate: 15 Run Time: 162 mins
One Battle After Another is the new Paul Thomas Anderson film, a filmmaker who I have a hit-and-miss relationship with. There Will Be Blood is an undisputed masterpiece, I love both Punch Drunk Love and Phantom Thread, but Magnolia, The Master and Licorice Pizza all left me cold. Anderson’s latest is another adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel (Inherent Vice was his first), although the director has taken some liberties with the source material by incorporating some of his own stories into the narrative.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun, who we meet as a member of a revolutionary far-left group known as the French 75 with his partner Perdifia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor). The group has a successful run, but it’s undone by Perfidia’s relationship with the fiersome Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). The film then jumps 16 years later where Pat (now living in hiding as Bob Ferguson) has become a paranoid drug addict who lives with his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) off the grid in the sanctuary city of Baktan Cross. But Lockjaw is still on their tail.
One Battle After Another is a Paul Thomas Anderson triumph – it’s a giddily exciting action epic with plenty of thrilling surprises up its sleeve. It’s fiersomely original, Anderson constantly subverts expectations in a refreshing way with some outrageous set-pieces too. There’s two heart-racing car chases, with the one in the final act particularly memorable for how simple it is – cinematographer Michael Bauman (who also lensed Licorice Pizza) intercuts between three drivers and a stunning desert vista. A 20-minute extended sequence mid-way through the film where DiCaprio’s character needs to evade the authorities is another wildly entertaining highlight. But under the surface of this riveting story, Anderson has plenty to ruminate on the current state of American affairs but in a playful way with plenty of intelligent humour.
Leonardo DiCaprio is fantastic in the lead, dabbling his hand at comedy once again after his last turn in the underrated Don’t Look Up. Once a sharp and intelligent explosives expert, Anderson gets a lot of mileage out of the character who fries his brain with drugs after 16 years and DiCaprio nails it. Is this one of his best roles? It’s hard to say because the actor is so good in almost everything he’s in.
If there’s an actor who’s a dead-lock for an acting Oscar nomination, it’s going to be Sean Penn, who quite possibly puts in career-best work as the bigoted Colonel Lockjaw. He is utterly ridiculous as the racist military officer, a parody of male machismo with a particularly memorable walk, with Penn deftly balancing physical comedy with a tragicomic storyline for the character. He’s magnificent and would be deserving of a Best Supporting Actor win.
Benicio Del Toro is another standout as a chilled-as-a-cucumber karate teacher, who happens to also be a community leader and he gets many memorable lines – “I’ve had a few small beers” will undoubtedly be a line the actor is going to be remembered for after this film. Finally, Chase Infiniti as Perfidia’s daughter is a terrific find and she’ll find instant stardom after this film.
The film is beautifully shot on VistaVision by Michael Bauman (the second film this year after The Brutalist) – there are so many memorable shots here, and he too would be deserving of awards attention. Jonny Greenwood turns in a sensational score, which is very unconventional but fitting and memorable. The score felt rather alien the first time I watched One Battle After Another, but on a second viewing, it just fits in so seamlessly and it’s straight up there as one of his best works.
One Battle After Another is a near-masterpiece from Paul Thomas Anderson and it’s certainly his best film since There Will Be Blood. This is a bold, infectiously entertaining epic thriller with a litany of top-quality performances and inventive set-pieces. I’m positive it’s going to be a film that appears on decade-end lists and will be talked about for years to come, and it’ll be hard to resist switching off if it comes on television with its outstanding pacing.
Is One Battle After Another perfect? Not quite. After two viewings, I don’t think the opening 30 minutes quite matches the energy of the rest of the film (but there’s still so many positives, especially a grisly car chase). When the film jumps to 16 years later, the rest of the 162-minute film is just perfectly paced. This is a film where you’ll pick up on subtle character cues or themes every time you rewatch it – it is bursting in spirit and substance. One Battle After Another is worth racing to the cinema for as soon as you can and goes straight up there as one of the best films I’ve seen this year.
Director: Francis Lawrence Starring: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tu Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davies, Joshua Odjick, Judy Greer, Mark Hamill Certificate: 15 Run Time: 108 mins
The Long Walk is an adaptation of the 1979 Stephen King novel (under his pseudonym Richard Bachman) and is set in a future United States under a totalitarian military regime where fifty men compete in an annually televised competition, meant to inspire viewers. There’s a man representing each state and they must walk at a speed of at least three miles per hour – if they fall below and receive three warnings, they’re shot on the spot, with the winner being the final survivor.
Francis Lawrence directs – and you couldn’t ask for a more fitting name at the helm, given he’s directed all of The Hunger Games films (bar the first), where people must also fight to the death. Cooper Hoffman plays Raymond ‘Ray’ Garraty, and the film opens as we see his mother Ginnie (Judy Greer) begging him to back out, but he’s insistent on participating (for reasons we find out later on) and he starts to get to know the other players, forming a close bond Peter ‘Pete’ McVries (David Jonsson).
The Long Walk is an excellent adaptation and Lawrence deftly sustains a chilling and grim tone, but balanced with a humanity in the well-developed characters. The film really makes the most of its simple premise and there’s a sustained sense of dread throughout – if a character wants to tie a shoelace or stop to relieve themselves, they’re naturally going to be doing that at less than three miles an hour. Naturally, the characters move through emotional states as the walk progresses and it’s exciting to see what were adversaries become friends, and vice versa. The film does a great job in forcing you to think that any relationships formed are doomed, given the inevitable’s going to happen. It’s also testament to how strong a story this is when most of the film is just a tracking shot of some characters walking along a road – Lawrence doesn’t use many flashbacks.
Cooper Hoffman makes for an excellent lead, especially once he reveals his motivations and David Jonsson gives a soulful performance as Pete, a character with plenty of meat on the bone too. Charlie Plummer is another standout, who typically plays meek and quiet characters in films such as All The Money In The World and Lean On Pete, but here he plays against type. An almost unrecognisable Mark Hamill is deliciously evil here as The Major, who’s clearly relishing the role as a horrible villain that symbolises everything that’s wrong with society.
Unlike The Hunger Games films where the commentary behind the games is just as compelling as the contest, Lawrence trims the fat from The Long Walk and makes it lean and mean instead. The film doesn’t waste any time in getting started and never wanders into eye-rolling schmaltz, which is an easy trap for a film like this to run into. What’s more, there’s an excellent score by Jeremiah Fraites, who crafts several memorable themes and the film’s well shot by Lawrence’s regular cinematographer Jo Willems, who conveys the expanse and monotonous of the never-ending roads the characters must travel on.
The Long Walk is an excellent Stephen King adaptation in a strong year of them, considering we’ve also had The Monkey, The Life of Chuck and Edgar Wright’s The Running Man remake will be releasing shortly. Lawrence directs this with real flair and the sombre tone and well-rounded characters meant I was fully invested throughout. The Long Walk might be too grim for some, but that’s to its benefit – it makes for powerful viewing.
When director James Wan‘s deeply effective The Conjuring released in 2013, little did anyone think a standalone horror film depicting one of Ed and Lorraine Warren’s cases would spawn into a fully-fledged cinematic universe. Despite a handful of misfires, the series has proven mostly solid spinning an entertaining yarn on the paranormal investigators and the rogue’s gallery of supernatural demons and entities they’ve faced.
With The Conjuring: Last Rites now in cinemas, and supposedly the final outing for Ed and Lorraine Warren, here is my ranking of all the films in The ConjuringUniverse to date. Note I’m including The Curse of La Llorona, which was considered part of the series when it released but then wasn’t in 2021 when director Michael Chaves said it was only intended as “a wink and a nod” to the franchise.
10) Annabelle
Annabelle is unquestionably the worst of the series and has virtually no redeeming qualities to it. Riding off the success of The Conjuring a year before, John R. Leonetti’s spin-off is a blatantly unoriginal, preposterous cash grab that save for one very well orchestrated scare and beautiful cinematography, is a dud. Annabelle lacks any of the sense of dread The Conjuring has and the jump scares are obvious and uninspiring. The cast are uniformly terrible, in particular Ward Horton and the script is cringeworthy. Its ending is particularly offensive where characters make irrational and stupid decisions and I laughed multiple times. It’s a film that looks like it should have gone straight-to-DVD and represented a complete U-turn in quality for the series.
⭐⭐
Rating: 1.5 out of 5.
9) The Nun
The Nun is an absolute trainwreck – the film is edited extremely badly, its overreliance on jump scares mean it isn’t scary and the story is borderline incoherent. However, unlike Annabelle, there are some redeeming qualities to The Nun.
Director Corin Hardy is clearly a horror aficionado which shows in the film’s cineliteracy (there are allusions to some of the Hammer horror films for instance) and the film is quite atmospheric and establishes a chilling setting. For instance, there are some breathtaking shots of the exteriors of the monastery which really portray the grandeur and influence it has on its characters. This is by far, the most frightening aspect of the film and leaves a lot to audience interpretation. It’s strange then that Hardy resorts to jump scares, which are all poor and there is not a single memorable one in the film. It’s also strange that Hardy chooses to punish the characters in the worst possible way towards the beginning of the film. There is an extended sequence where a character is stuck in a grave, which is a horrifying scenario but anything that happens to this character afterwards is never as bad. Surely, this sequence would have worked better towards the end of the film? Despite these fatal mis-steps, all of Hardy’s good work in the film’s atmosphere is undone and squandered by how the film has been edited. Every scene films too brief and this really hinders in creating a creepy atmosphere. Somewhere here is a good enough film, but the way it has been edited completely undermines this and this results in The Nun ultimately being very disappointing.
The Nun 2 represents an improvement over the original with better storytelling and coherent editing but still suffers from its fair share of problems. Director Michael Chaves makes a stronger effort to give the characters an arc, it’s slickly shot and edited and the second half is entertaining in places. However, the jump scares aren’t particularly effective and the first hour is quite tedious, as Sisters Irene and Debra (Taissa Farmiga and Storm Reid) try to catch up with the fact Valak (Bonnie Aaron) has possessed Maurice (Jonas Bloquet) which we learnt at the end of the previous film. The script is quite clunky and there’s some inexcusable exposition, a seemingly all-knowing librarian the nuns meet in their investigation who conveniently happens to know all the particulars of a Macguffin device they need and exactly how to defeat the demon is incredibly lazy. A revelatory line in the film’s climax relating to a mother’s eyes is also unintentionally laughable. It’s also a shame Storm Reid’s character is underdeveloped following a potentially interesting introduction and Anna Popplewell’s unconvincing Irish accent is distracting.
While The Conjuring: Last Rites isn’t a bad film, it’s a disappointing ending to the mainline series. Director Michael Chaves veers between an overly schmaltzy tone in how the relationship between a now grown-up Judy (Mia Tomlinson) and Tony (Ben Hardy) develops, and also the relationship between Ed and Lorraine Warren, with sub-par horror. The decision to revert back to the haunted house formula is a bad one, with Chaves lacking James Wan’s mastery in the scares department. While there’s semblances of tension here and there, he doesn’t create a palpable atmosphere of dread like Wan does. There’s a couple of good scares – one involving pausing a videotape and another in a room of mirrors, but the rest are rather underwhelming. Nothing here is on the scale of the tremendous scene from the first film of two children frozen in fear of something that may or may not be behind a door. Chaves unfortuantely also succumbs to many bouts of fan service and in an age of legacy sequels, he leaves the door open by setting Judy and Tony as successors to their parents – Ben Hardy’s Tony essentially performs the same function as Shia La Boeuf’s Mutt in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. While The Conjuring: Last Rites is supposedly the end for Ed and Lorraine Warren for now, nothing’s really the end but I hope whatever’s next in store for the series has some more thought and care put into it.
The third film in the Annabelle trilogy isn’t as effective as the second but writer Gary Dauberman’s directorial debut has a lot going for it. Dauberman’s film is the first spin-off to feature the Warren’s and is effectively a horror-spin on Night At The Museum as Judy Warren (Mckenna Grace) and her babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) inadvertently release Annabelle’s spirit in the artifacts room. The storyline is solid, but the film’s not particularly scary and rather empty in feeling.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
5) The Curse of La Llorona
Only loosely tied to The Conjuring Universe, Michael Chaves’ directorial debut is based on the Latin American folklore of La Llorona, a vengeful ghost who roams near bodies of water mourning her children who she drowned in a jealous rage after discovering her husband was cheating on her. Although Chaves doesn’t make the most of the absorbing background story, the film is still an entertaining watch with a handful of effective scares. He does a good job of establishing Anna (Linda Cardellini) and her children and the film is crisply shot by Michael Burgess.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
4)The Conjuring 2
The Conjuring 2 isn’t as strong as the first film – it is overlong which severely impacts the pacing and just isn’t quite as interesting a story as the first one was. However, horror-maestro James Wan delivers in spades on the scare-front and the film has some truly frightening sequences and there are also some great performances from the cast. Only Wan could have made or been given permission to make this film as 134 minutes for a horror film is uncommonly long and whilst there is a lot of character development (and self-indulgence), 20 minutes could fairly easily have been chopped off and the film would almost be as strong as the original. This is definitely its main problem which is to its detriment. The film bears many similarities to William Friedkin’s The Exorcist and there are a couple of moments where the film leaves a bit of a sour taste as it reiterates many of the clichéd elements of superior horror films. Coming off a near-perfect original, it’s a shame The Conjuring 2 isn’t a knock-out, but that was always going to be impossible and there is still a lot to like in this film.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It represents a welcome change of direction compared to the first two films in that it delves from the haunted house formula and is more of a police procedural crime thriller. The story the film is based on is riveting, even if some creative liberties have been taken with it for it to fit the horror genre. The performances are all excellent, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as the Warren’s again are the centrepiece of the franchise and the film expands and revolves around their strong relationship. James Wan is not behind the camera this time around, with The Curse of La Llorona’s Michael Chaves inheriting the mantle. Chaves’ direction attempts to ape Wan’s from the use of title cards and a prologue sequence at the beginning to the general tone of the film. However, when it comes to the horror aspect of the film, Chaves just does not craft the scares in as sophisticated a fashion as Wan. I was riveted from start to finish but there is always the question of what if this film had been directed by James Wan and I think if had, the result here would have been extraordinary. If the film doubled down on its scares or chose to eliminate them completely and spent longer developing its characters and establishing the stakes, this could have been a masterpiece.
Annabelle: Creation is a marked improvement over its predecessor and is suitably scary, features good character development and is shot beautifully by cinematographer Maxime Alexandre. It also ties itself nicely into the wider universe but not enough to detract from the film – director David F. Sandberg still manages to satisfy on a standalone level. One must applaud Sandberg for having a go at crafting many different types of scares and seeing what sticks and there are several sequences which are superbly crafted. Unfortunately, the film does stick to convention at times and there are a few sections bordering on comedy but it is so, so much better than its predecessor in every level. When the film works, it’s superb and it’s nice and tightly paced. It’s astounding how much of a shift in quality this is from the first film which had no hope.
The Conjuring is by far and away the best film in the series and also represents a career best for director James Wan, which this film really helped to propel his career. The film is suitably scary, very atmospheric and has a fascinating narrative. Wan develops the characters superbly, in particular Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, who are great as The Warren’s. Although the scares aren’t the most original, it’s in the execution which allows this film to really deliver and some of the set pieces in this film are mesmerising. The Conjuring is a film that is even better on rewatches and when we come back to look on the horror genre in the 2010’s, this film will definitely be remembered.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments or tweet @TheFilmMeister
Director: Michael Chaves Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Steve Coulter Certificate: 15 Run Time: 135 mins
The Conjuring: Last Rites is the fourth and supposedly final film in the mainline series, and is a loosely adapted portrayal of the Smurl haunting. It’s the tenth entry in the wider The Conjuring Universe (if you’re counting The Curse of La Llorona, which I do). While the various spin-offs have been of varying quality – Annabelle: Creationthe high point, and Annabelle and The Nun complete and utter disasters – the mainline series has always been excellent. James Wan’s 2013 original is a horror masterpiece and The Conjuring 2, which he returned to direct, is also very strong. Michael Chaves assumed the director’s chair for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do Itand although it received mixed reviews, I thought it was an excellent entry – yes, it isn’t as strong in the scares department, but it more than makes up for it by moving away from the haunted house formula and being more of a crime thriller.
Chaves is once again on director duties for The Conjuring: Last Rites, and moves back to the haunted house formula. As the film opens, Ed and Lorrain Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) have retired from their invesitgations, but continue giving lectures. Their now-adult daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) is becoming increasingly sensitive to psychic visions and is in a developing relationship with her boyfriend Tony (Ben Hardy). However, the Warren’s are persuaded out of retirement with the Smurl case.
While The Conjuring: Last Rites isn’t a bad film, it’s a disappointing ending to the mainline series. Chaves veers between an overly schmaltzy tone in how the relationship between Judy and Tony develops, and also the relationship between Ed and Lorraine, with sub-par horror. He’s proven in the past that he lacks James Wan’s mastery, and while there’s semblances of tension here and there, he doesn’t create a palpable atmosphere of dread like James Wan does. There’s a couple of good scares – one involving pausing a videotape and another in a room of mirrors, but the rest are rather underwhelming. Nothing here is on the scale of the tremendous scene from the first film of two children frozen in fear of something that may or may not be behind a door.
In many ways, Last Rites repeats many of the story beats of the original in how a family is haunted in their home. However, unlike Wan who really developed each family member, Chaves neglects to flesh out the Smurl’s. There’s very little meat to the bone and the fact it takes almost 80 minutes for the Warren’s to finally reach the residency is symbolic of the film’s strange pacing. It just feels like Chaves is going through the motions of a typical horror film without much finesse.
Chaves unfortuantely also succumbs to many bouts of fan service and in an age of legacy sequels, he leaves the door open by setting Judy and Tony as successors to their parents – Ben Hardy’s Tony essentially performs the same function as Shia La Boeuf’s Mutt in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. At least the strength of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s performances as the Warren’s mostly carries the film. They’ve always been the highlight of the series and frankly, I’d watch them read from the phonebook.
All of the previous films have been handsomely shot by their cinematographers but newcomer Eli Born can’t inject much life into the film. Outside of some effectively dreary shots of the industrial town the Smurl’s live in, the film is often dimly shot and lacks polish. Also lacking polish is Benjamin Wallfisch’s completely forgettable score, replacing the excellent Joseph Bishara who composed the music for the previous films.
It’s a real shame The Conjuring: Last Rites stalls the mainline series momentum. Like The Devil Made Me Do It redefined the series by shaking up the formula, it would have been wise for Last Rites to do this again, rather than revert back to the haunted house formula of the first two films. Instead, what we’ve got is a serviceable entry that’s overlong and doesn’t quite get the tone right, that’s also lacking in the scares department. While The Conjuring: Last Rites is supposedly the end for Ed and Lorraine Warren for now, nothing’s really the end but I hope whatever’s next in store for the series has some more thought and care put into it.
Director: Jay Roach Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Andy Samberg, Allison Janney, Sunita Mani, Ncuti Gatwa, Kate McKinnon Certificate: 15 Run Time: 105 mins
The Roses is a satirical black comedy directed by Jay Roach, a remake of the 1989 Danny DeVito film which was loosely based on a 1981 novel by Warren Adler. Roach is a dab hand at comedy, hailing all three Austin Powers films, Meet The Parents and Meet The Fockers (but fortunately not the terrible Little Fockers) and The Campaign – all masterpieces. Ok, Dinner for Schmucks was poor, but that’s otherwise a pretty impressive run. More recently, Roach has turned his hand to dramas, directing Trumbo and Bombshell, which were also both excellent.
This satirical black comedy stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as Theo and Ivy Rose, an English couple who have relocated to California with two twin children. Theo is an architect, while Ivy is a chef, and the two have very different parenting styles. When Theo’s career comes to a crashing halt during a severe storm, Ivy picks up the slack and rapidly grows her restaurant business, which slowly draws the couple apart to increasingly icy results.
Although The Roses comfortably passes the six laugh test and Cumberbatch and Colman make for a prickly duo, the film is never as consistently funny as it needs to be. Roach’s film feels like it’s pulling in two different directions – screenwriter Tony McNamara (who wrote Poor Things and co-wrote TheFavourite) has a distinctive way with words, which is at odds with the director’s more slapstick American brand of humour. While The Roses is never boring and has flashes of brilliance (the film’s opening, a dinnertime conversation exchange between guests, and scene where a character sneakily smokes cannabis are all great) it would have been better for it to either put all its eggs into either McNamara’s script or Roach’s humour rather than act as a compromise between the two.
Cumberbatch and Colman really carry the film, both turning in excellent performances. Colman’s proven many times to be a dab hand at comedy, but this is new territory for Cumberbatch, and he proves a worthy foil. The constant verbal sparring match between Cumberbatch and Colman is sharply written, and it’s satisfyingly cringeworthy to watch each character continue to dig themselves into a deeper hole. But both actors also bring plenty of heart – it’s easy to empathise with Colman’s Ivy when the growing pressure of her work begins to consume her, likewise you can sympathise with Cumberbatch’s Theo who has to bear the brunt of raising their children.
Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon play Barry and Amy, friends of the Roses and while Samberg gets some great lines, McKinnon’s Amy is rather grating. Faring better are Ncuti Gatwa and Sunita Main and Jeffrey and Jane, two members of staff in Ivy’s restaurant, who are both clearly having fun and Allison Janney makes a lasting impression as Ivy’s divorce lawyer in the one scene she gets.
The film’s competently shot by Florian Hoffmeister, and he does a particularly adept job at showcasing the various houses the Roses live in during their marriage. Roach’s frequent collaborator composer Theodore Shapiro also turns in a playful score.
While The Roses is by no means a bad film, it falls short of the greatness Jay Roach has demonstrated in the past with the majority of his comedies. It’s perfectly passable in the moment and has a handful of memorable laughs, but it’s not consistently funny and there are some flat stretches. It may be that Roach is just the wrong director for this particular script because his brand of humour isn’t an obvious match for McNamara’s witty dialogue. Still, The Roses is fun in the moment and Cumberbatch and Colman make for a memorable duo but considering the director’s comedy calibre, it should have been better.
Director: Chris Columbus Starring: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Celia Imrie, Ben Kingsley, David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomie Ackie, Daniel Mays, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Richard E. Grant Certificate: 12A Run Time: 118 mins
The Thursday Murder Club is an adaptation of Richard Osman’s debut 2020 murder mystery novel, which has since spawned a successful series. It followed a group of pensioners who set about solving the mystery of the murder of a local property development from the comfort of their luxurious retirement village. This adaptation (which heads straight to Netflix after a limited release) has a star-studded cast, with Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Celia Imrie and Ben Kingsley as the central quartet. It’s directed by Chris Columbus, who has a great track record with comedies with films such as Home Alone and Mrs Doubtfire, and of course, he directed the first two Harry Potter films. With a high-calibre cast and crew, this sounds like it could be a promising start to the series.
Sadly, The Thursday Murder Club is an unmitigated disaster. Other than being handsomely shot and a couple of actors trying to make the most of a poor script, there’s little fun to be found here. The two biggest problems are Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote’s script and the film’s tone. Osman’s wit is of a certain brand, and there were chuckles to be had in the book, but the script here is wooden and none of the jokes land. There’s also zero suspense and the film moves at a glacial pace, often being rather boring – that’s quite an achievement considering the star-studded cast. The tone is also completely off, perhaps because Columbus is an American director and hasn’t fully understood the book that’s steeped in British humour.
There’s a surprising real mixed bag of performances, but you can only do what you can do with such a shoddy script. Helen Mirren and Ben Kingsley fare the best out of the central quartet, but both play their roles very straight. While Celia Imrie’s a fine actress, her retired nurse Joyce lacks all the sweetness and naivety the character has in the book. And then there’s Pierce Brosnan, who’s Ron Ritchie is meant to have a Cockney accent but Lord knows where the character hails from with Brosnan’s woeful performance.
Of the supporting cast, Naomie Ackie and Daniel Mays are toe-curlingly bad as the two police officers who are tasked with investigating the case, with all their comedic attempts falling flat. David Tennant, Richard E. Grant and Henry Lloyd Hughes are also surprisingly awful in their roles – Tennant as the villainous retirement village co-owner, Grant as a gangster-like crime boss with laughable tattoos and Hughes as an inauthentic Polish maintenance man.
While Thomas Newman’s score is certainly instantly noticeable as his, it aggressively doesn’t fit in with the film’s tone and isn’t memorable in the slightest. The film is handsomely shot by Don Burgess, who does a great job of establishing the grandiose retirement village’s presence.
It’s a real shame The Thursday Murder Club is so poor considering the talent involved. It completely bellyflops tonally and Columbus and his crew haven’t understood the essence of Osman’s novel. That even the veteran cast can’t elevate proceedings demonstrates this adapation is doomed. It wouldn’t surprise me if the film performed well enough to justify a sequel – in many ways, it feels like a television series in its execution in how it’s largely confined to one location and lacks a cinematic sheen. But The Thursday Murder Club just goes to show that a top-tier cast and crew isn’t a guarantee of a film’s quality.
Darren Aronofsky is one of my favourite film directors and always makes extremely thoughtful and original films that are brimming with his signature style.
With his latest film, Caught Stealing, currently playing in cinemas, here I rank his filmography from worst to best. It’s telling that I even have plenty of respect for his weakest film.
9) Pi
A challenging watch, Pi takes a few watches to get your head around and its ambition is certainly to be admired. This low-budget surrealist debut from Aronofsky centers around an unemployed mathematician Max Cohen (Sean Gullette), who lives in squalor in a Chinatown apartment in New York and believes everything in life can be understood by numbers. But this Lynchian film isn’t just about maths – there’s plenty of commentary on religion too, and you have to admire the film for its frenetic tone, committed performances and manic Clint Mansell score.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
8) The Whale
The Whale is an adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter’s 2012 play and follows a morbidly obese English teacher, Charlie (Brendan Fraser), who has eaten himself to this state following the suicide of his partner. Although the film received mixed reviews, I found it to be an emotionally powerful experience with a terrific performance from Brendan Fraser. Aronofsky beautifully explores the relationship between a father and his daughter and there are many touching moments focussing on Charlie’s outlook of life. I walked out of the film grateful and determined to further my relations with others and to always be positive. Yet, the film deftly conveys Charlie’s pain and hopelessness and it becomes inevitable early on that he is on a path of self-destruction. The way in which Aronofsky portrays binge-eating is particularly harrowing – like Requiem For A Dream will make you never want to touch drugs, The Whale is the equivalent for food. It wouldn’t be an Aronofsky film without the exploration of religion and the events on-screen are interwoven with religious parallels and texts, which lend a pathos to Charlie’s situation.
I still haven’t really made up my mind on ‘mother!’ and I doubt I will until I have watched it a few more times. The first two acts are particularly grim and brooding and develop really neatly into what is a bonkers third act. I think I enjoy the film more for its conceptual nature rather than the actual film itself which I found a little hard to get into at times. That said, the film has made a very long lasting impression on me and I keep thinking about it. Aronofsky crafts some really strong and memorable images and I really enjoyed the characterisation. ‘mother!’ reinforces my love of film and is why I continue to be enamoured with the medium of film. It’s films like ‘mother!’ that challenge their audiences and aren’t just acceptable and dumb that really keep me driven. I’m not really sure (and it is surely deliberate by Aronofsky) what the film means but on first viewing, I found the film to be delirious, deeply allegorical, manic, paranoid and genuinely unnerving. ‘mother!’ is definitely a film that deserves and I appreciate exists. This film has the potential to crawl up the list as time passes but for now, I have to put it 6th.
The Fountain is a rather misunderstood film and received mixed reviews on its release. It is frequently enthralling and is a pure spectacle to behold on screen – it’s very impressive to see what one can do with a limited budget. This is in my opinion, Aronofsky’s first explicit exploration of religion and is perhaps one of the director’s most personal films. It features great performances across the board and features a magnificent score by Aronofsky-regular Clint Mansell and stunning cinematography by Matthew Libatique. So why it doesn’t it rank any higher? Its pacing feels rather disjointed and the film is a bit of a slog in parts and is paced too quickly in others. A more ruthless editor who knew how to assemble the film in a better way, I’m sure would have put this up there with his best films.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
5) Caught Stealing
While it might seem strange that Aronofsky is directing what appears to be a straight-up crime thriller – don’t worry because there’s plenty of Aronofsky to be found in this darkly original adaptation of Charlie Huston’s 2004 novel. Caught Stealing is a wildly unpredictable ride from start to finish that holds no punches in its brutal approach. Aronofsky is on top form here, and the film is directed with real flair, with plenty of his trademark grimness. This is a film that’s often wince-inducing and blackly comic, sometimes at the same time. It has a real kineticism, and there’s some excellent setpieces, especially a third act car chase. But there’s also heart and I really brought the electic mix of characters, and Aronofsky deftly showcases the dirty, grimy nature of New York.
Black Swan was an important film for Aronofsky and it certainly elevated his oeuvre with a Best Director Oscar nomination. This is a dark, panic-inducing film that tackles a strangely hypnotic and hegemonically calm sport. Natalie Portman is electric as the titular character which she won an Oscar for and the cast is rounded out by Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder who all put in very convincing performances.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
3) The Wrestler
The Wrestler is a subdued and melancholic investigation into its main character, played magnificently by Mickey Rourke in a comeback role. Rourke is outstanding as Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson who is a calm yet determined character and Marisa Tomei co-stars here too in what is perhaps a career best performance for her. The Wrestler builds up to an outstanding conclusion and features outstanding cinematgraphy by Maryse Alberti, a departure from Matthew Libatique and a subtle yet memorable Clint Mansell score.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
2) Noah
A passion project for Aronofsky, Noah is perhaps one of the most unconventional and controversial mainstream film of recent times. It delivers visually with some visceral action sequences and fantastical creatures yet is a strangely adult film for its 12 rating. It tackles some really controversial and hard to stomach themes and is in many ways, a morality tale. Russell Crowe is outstanding here as the titular character and across the board, the cast are brilliant with Emma Watson perhaps making the best impression as the barren Ila. Noah really narked audiences off and religious devotees but this is a really special film that goes against the grain and really delivers. And again, Clint Mansell’s score and Matthew Libatique’s cinematgraphy once again elevate the film.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
1) Requiem For A Dream
Requiem For A Dream is my pick for my favourite Darren Aronofsky film and is perhaps one of my favourite films since 2000 so far. It is a hallucinogenic, nerve-wracking, depressing experience that will put anyone off narcotics far more effectively than a school drugs talk. Aronofsky experiments with form and imagery and Matthew Libatique’s cinematography is especially kinetic and unnerving. Clint Mansell’s score is one of the most haunting of our times and has gone on to inspire many other films. It is a note perfect film and doesn’t degrade on each rewatch. It is a masterpiece.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments or tweet @TheFilmMeister
Director: Darren Aronofsky Starring: Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoe Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio Certificate: 15 Run Time: 107 mins
Caught Stealing is the new film by Darren Aronofsky, a crime thriller adaptation of the 2004 Charlie Huston novel. At first, it might seem strange that Aronofsky is directing what appears to be a straight-up crime thriller – after all, he’s known for his psychological dramas that explore broken and conflicted individuals. However, don’t worry because there’s plenty of Aronofsky to be found in this darkly original adaptation.
Austin Butler plays Henry ‘Hank’ Thompson, a former baseball player-turned-bartender who’s bordering on alcoholism while living in the Lower East Side of New York, where his girlfriend Yvonne works as a paramedic. His British punk neighbour Russ Binder (Matt Smith) is off to London to see his ailing father and asks Hank to look after his cat. All hell breaks loose when two Russian mobsters rock up at the door searching for Russ though, and Hank finds himself on the receiving end of their anger.
Caught Stealing is a wildly unpredictable ride from start to finish that holds no punches in its brutal approach. Aronofsky is on top form here, and the film is directed with real flair, with plenty of his trademark grimness. This is a film that’s often wince-inducing and blackly comic, sometimes at the same time. It has a real kineticism, and there’s some excellent setpieces, especially a third act car chase. But there’s also heart and I really brought the electic mix of characters, and Aronofsky deftly showcases the dirty, grimy nature of the city.
Austin Butler is terrific as Hank, a deeply troubled individual who’s struggling to get himself out of a vicious cycle. Aronofsky gives the character plenty of meat to the bone. Matt Smith is having fun as the drug dealer neighbour with an outrageous mohawk, and Regina King’s excellent as a deliciously slippery police detective. Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio are also brilliant as Lipa and Smully Drucker, Hasidic brothers who you really don’t want to mess with.
The film’s vividly shot by Aronofsky’s regular cinematographer Matthew Libatique and there’s a fun post-punk score by British band Idles that’s been written by Rob Simonsen, who scored The Whale.
I was surprised just how much I liked Caught Stealing, expecting it to be a minor work by Aronofsky after his last couple of films have explored some heavy subject matter. But the director proves his versatility by transposing his fingerprints onto a genre he hasn’t explored before, and I was completely on board with Caught Stealing from start to finish. This is an excellent film, and one I can’t wait to rewatch.
The Film Meister 