Review: Lean On Pete

After first hearing of this film at last years Telluride Film Festival, this sounded like it had all the ingredients for an indie hit.

That was all was required for me to check this out, and I must say that this was a pretty moving piece of work.

The first two-acts certainly moved along like how it is being marketed and how I expected. The story was hooking me in at a gentle pace, the characters were introduced perfectly and the development was strong.
Then a quite distressing turn of events caught me unaware, and the final act gave me something slightly unexpected. That being said, it was quite a poignant ending that left me thoroughly satisfied with how our characters ended up.

The star of the show is Charlie Plummer. He is an absolute sensation, he is the heart of the film and this is a real breakthrough performance. Director Andrew Haigh and his casting team did a great job with not just bringing in Plummer, but with everyone involved.
Another top performance is Steve Buscemi's. From his very first scene, you can already tell that Buscemi is bringing out his a-game. Their is fantastic chemistry between him and Plummer's character, and while his character is mean at times, you can feel sympathy for him as well. This will definitely be one of the better supporting roles I will see this year.
I also have to give a mention to Chloe Savigny, who made great use of her short time on screen. It was nice seeing Travis Fimmell in something like this. I still don't think he has fully transitioned into film acting after his fantastic achievement in the TV series 'Vikings'. But this performance was certainly a step in the right direction.

Whilst I don't think this will do well in the cinemas due to it not being a major studio release, I think that people that will check this out can find something that they can connect or relate with in the story.
With all of that happening, the beautifully shot American landscape also really adds to the brutality of this story.

This is a very impactful, emotional and heart-breaking story with a dark sensibility that is only hinted in its visuals and that is easy to connect to. As I said before, Plummer is worth the admission alone.
Haigh and the rest of his writing team managed to fully-fledge so many of the characters with top writing and help by the terrific performances.
This film with shock you at times, make you cry, inspire you and even have the occasional chuckle along the way.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story

It seems strange to not feel excited for a Star Wars film. With a combination of work, The Last Jedi still fresh in my mind and not being that intrigued by the story, I have just not had time to even be hyped for this.

The origins of Han Solo is just something that I just don't feel needs to be hold. But with so many franchises squeezing the life out of their characters backstories, I guess it just goes with the times.
Also the production problems this has been having also lowered my expectations. I really would have liked to have seen Phil Lord & Christopher Miller's take on this story. I love their work and I feel their style would give this franchise a nice refreshing look to it. But instead Ron Howard came in, which I feel to be the safest choice imaginable.

One big positive I had going into this was that I really liked the other Star Wars spin-off, Rogue One. To me, it is the best Star Wars film since the original trilogy. So there was a part of me hoping for a similar experience.

I felt I almost got that, especially in the first half. But in the end, I felt satisfied that I don't think this story needed to be told. But thankfully, there is plenty to enjoy and you can have a fun time watching this.

It starts off pretty well. I liked how certain characters were introduced, how some first met and they were set no new worlds that were explored enough for me to want to know more about. Then there were cool and exciting action set pieces that had me having a fun time.
I enjoyed a few little goodies that you can notice relating to previous Star Wars films, including Rogue One. One surprise really made me smile, and I can see a lot of others doing it. However, it was only shown at the end and I'm not sure if this will ever be continued in any future installments. We'll have to wait and see on that one.
After that, there were some still nice surprises. But the pacing of the second half seemed to slow everything down and lack a strong ending that made wanting to punch the air in delight or skip out of the screening with joy.

The performances on the whole were pretty good. I was very worried for Alden Ehrenreich. As much as I like him as an actor, filling in the shoes of such a well known and recognisable character is huge pressure. II thought his performance was fine, which I guess is a relief. It was always going to be tough gig for him playing the title character. Going into this film, he was already hampered down by Harrison Ford's portrayal of him, and people expect to see the exact same mannerisms. So the perfect performance had to walk a fine-line of an impression and also making it his own at the same time. While someone like Chris Pine did it perfectly as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, Ehrenreich didn't quite pull it off. There's nothing wrong with the performance. It just wasn't the complete Solo package. But there were enough moments that reminded of the Solo character for it to be a somewhat worthy performance.
Joonas Suotamo as Chewbecca did a great job and might have been the best performance. There was strong chemistry with Ehrenreich and their first encounter I think will please a lot of fans, both general and hardcore.
Another actor that had a good connection with Ehrenreich was Emilia Clarke's character. I did not feel she had fully become a big screen actor and just a small screen one instead. But I thought she did a good job as is becoming a solid movie actor.
Another actor coming into this film by playing character people already know, is Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. I did he did a pretty good job. Right from the first scene, he already had that smooth satisfaction about him whilst knowing that there is a cheat and a scoundrel behind all that charm. Also, Glover certainly had that sexy Billy Dee Williams voice, which as any Star Wars fan know can weaken the knees of anyone.

As for the new characters, I liked pretty much all of them. Woody Harrelson for me can do no wrong at the moment, and his character was a great addition to the development of the Solo character we eventually see the original trilogy. While Thandie Newton was not in it for long, I thought she had a bad-ass presence about her and justified it in a few action scenes.
Paul Bettaney continues to be a great actor at doing supporting or minor roles, and his character has potential to explore more.

There wasn't really a major villain or antagonist to be a major influence in the story. Missing that element was certainly one reason that prevented me from calling this a great film.

The technical side of this film was pretty strong. I loved the heavy use of practical sets and creatures, and all of that could get the a few Oscar nominations in costume, makeup and production design. It's shot really well and there are many dazzling visual effects.

Comedy is something that has become well associated with Star Wars. Sadly, I didn't feel many strong comedic moments. Some of the characters that were there for comedic relief, felt more annoying or obnoxious than anything else. The other attempts of laughter fell in that void of not falling flat, but not even making me chuckle.

I do have a negative and it's a huge one. I still did not see the point in making this, apart from keeping the fans entertained whilst 'Episode IX' in the main saga in being made. Doing origins stories of minor characters just loses all the imagination that someone can have of their backstory.
For many people, Han Solo in the original trilogy was a cool anti-hero that also felt like the most relatable character. That every-day man persona made him a fan favourite, and leaving his backstory open to interpretation is fine.
There were few moments to justify making this. But there just wasn't enough throughout the film to show that there was a reason for making it, rather than to make more money and have that corporate feel to it.

That being said, I did enjoy watching this and in my opinion it did partly recapture the Star Wars magic that kind of lost me in The Last Jedi. Like I said, the first half of the film was really good. It introduced us to the characters really well, had a intriguing story and there were lots of fun, exciting and tense action set-pieces. Then apart from a few things, the second half just felt very pedestrian and never had a strong pay-off to make me want to see this again straight away.
If I had to rank this with the other Star Wars films, I would place just below the middle. So for me, that would place it below The Force Awakens, and slightly above The Last Jedi.

I will remain excited about more 'A Star Wars Story' films, as they seem more interesting than the main saga ones at the moments. There are plenty of new characters and worlds that are explored in this. They may still rely on referring to the main Star Wars films at times. But I feel they are still gradually expanding the universe.

One final note, and this may be a spoiler to some people. Personally I don't think it is. Anyway, in the Last Jedi there were several nods to these gold dice that Han Solo has at the ceiling of his cockpit of the Millennium Falcon that are apparently important to him. I did not see the importance for this at all, and they show it again in Solo. It seems that it is something an item some hardcore fans noticed in images from the first Star Wars and wanted to have a backstory about it.
I don't see the point of making it an important piece of the story, nor do I even care. It just really bugged me that this has somehow become an integral part of Han's character.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Tully

A new film directed by Jason Reitman only seems to turn heads from a certain demographic. Most people including myself will associate him with Juno, and that's about it.
I barely remember him doing Up In The Air. But I'm afraid that's as far as I go.

From what I was hearing from the marketing, is that the writer of Juno Diablo Cody is also known in this. This means she is collaborating with Reitman for the third time. Also, with the brilliant Charlize Theron leading the way, this has the talent to make this a memorable watch.

From early on, you can already feel a lot of relatable situations from both the story and the characters. With the sharp dialogue bringing a lot of laughs, I felt pretty engaged with this before any serious development took place.
Then as the story moves along, there are many sweet and endearing moments that involves some strong chemistry with our main characters. However, there were hints of a twist that certainly had me guessing of an outlandish outing.
There was a twist, and I can see it dividing people. For me, I really liked how they ended it and it made me much more satisfied then I expected. But for others, I can see them being completely disappointed after such a strong build-up.

Charlize Theron plays the lead, and she continues to be such a huge talent. We've seen her in films where she is stunningly beautiful, and yet she has also done films where she is far away from her modelling days. But whatever transformation she takes, the acting is still of the highest quality.
You get a real sense of frustration with the situation Theron's character is in, and so that you quickly have us sympathizing for her. Plus her comedic timing was spot on, and it brought out a lot of laughs from me.
Theron's chemistry with Mackenzie Davis was to see develop and ended it being integral to the second half of the film, which paid off really well.

The mix of comedy and emotional drama was absolutely spot on and was its biggest strength. The laughs definitely paid off, it gave you emotional gut punches at the right time and it even a sprinkling of a twist.

You don't often see these types of movies be made, and when they're good, they need to be championed. I knew it had the great potential. But I was just not expecting how much I was thinking about it afterwards.
Theron is great, the story is very engaging and is writing is strong and made this exceptional viewing.

It didn't get much of a release in the UK. So I hope it finds its place when it's out on demand.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Deadpool 2

I think like many people, I absolutely loved the first Deadpool. It ended up finishing in my top 10 films of 2016.

What made this action comedy work with many people, was the strength of its gags, fourth-wall breaking, how self aware it was and how vast its limits with its rating being higher than normal superhero films.
So it's safe to say, I was very excited to see how this sequel would work out.

With it being a comedy, sequels do not usually fair well. But as Deadpool's tone and style can quickly change and adapt, I was confident this would be an exception.
In the end, I think I was right for the most part.

There is plenty to get out of this. As expected, the action scenes are executed really well and are fun to watch, especially towards the end. Also, there are a lot of jokes. Some of don't work, but a fair amount did. With a lot of the humor relying on particular references, I can see many of the gags going over peoples heads.
In terms of the story, I liked how they tried to bring the character of Deadpool down to Earth a bit, and concentrate more on Wade Wilson.
The plot-points in the film are nothing new and are very similar to a particular sci-fi film involving time-travel, which they do become self-aware of in a gag which was nice to see.

Ryan Reynolds still proves to us that he was born to be Deadpool. He still makes it look effortless and pulls off the gags so well. I can see Reynolds playing this character for as long as Hugh Jackman did for Wolverine.
Josh Brolin was pretty bad-ass in this as the villain. However, I would have liked a bit more development with his character, as he was falling into the trap of generic and underwhelming villain for the most part. So in terms of the performance, it was spot on. I just would like the writing team to give him more to work with.
It was great seeing Julian Dennison after his breakthrough in Hunt For The Wilderpeople. He played the role fairly well, and seemed an ideal casting choice for the tone the world of Deadpool is under. However, his relationship with Reynolds' character was confusing, and I don't think I'll be alone on that.
I liked Zazie Beetz's involvement late on, and she gave me enough content to be excited for her character in the next installment.
It was a shame we never got to so much of Brianna Hildebrand's character. After teasing enough of what she can do in the first Deadpool, I was hoping for her to be a strong supporting character. Instead, I think she along with Stefan Kapicic's character has less screen-time than before.
A final mention for the performances goes to one cool cameo that was worth the build-up to the big reveal.

Elsewhere, the visual effects were fine on the whole. But there were times where it did not look that polished. I know they're budget is up to the standards of an MCU film. But it still looked problematic.

Not much else to mention, except that while I did enjoy it and made me laugh a lot, it just did not have the impact that the first one had. The characters are not as strongly developed, the gags are not as strong or consistent and the general flow had its jittery moments.
But it did expand on the world-building fairly well and compared to most comedy sequels, this was a pretty good one. Plus, like the first one, it had stakes and therefore I was invested in many of the action set-pieces.
It may get better on multiple viewings. But I just felt the simplicity of the first one made it for such a fun viewing experience that I never got tired of watching. I can see many people feeling the same way. It will be interesting to see how the character of Deadpool is developed in future films.

I must finally mention that there are two sequences during the credits, and both are about halfway through. They are both hilarious and quite possible the funniest parts of the film. Sadly, there isn't one at the end of the credits. They were planning to have one. But it apparantly got cut out due to it being too gruesome, and from what I've read, I can kind of see why.

Rating: 7/10