Review: Free Solo

It's been a strange path leading up to my viewing of his film documentary set at the infamous cliff face of El Capitan.

I first heard of this back last Autumnand heard nothing but stellar reviews. Then when I got to the Leeds International Film Festival, there was a similar documentary set at El Capitan that they showed called The Dawn Wall, which apparently was made first. If you have read my review of it, then you know how I really enjoyed The Dawn Wall. So unlike most people, I was going in knowing it would be tough to match my enjoyment of The Dawn Wall.

I noticed early on that they actually briefly mentioned the events from The Dawn Wall which made me chuckle, because hardly anyone else would be aware of that. As for the film itself, seeing it on the big screen is essential to make it as thrilling of an experience as possible.
The feat of the achievement is impressive to see develop from its planning to actually doing it. Plus, the views of Yosemite National Park are always a joy. But seeing them from the face of El Capitan certainly enhances them.

But what I think makes The Dawn Wall the superior is the people involved.

The task at hand is being made by a climber called Alex Honnold. His personality is not the kind that you instantly warm to. Once you get to know his personality, I found enough to warm to him and being engaged with. But the charm and show of drive and determination felt more pleasing on the eye from climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgensen in The Dawn Wall.

While I may have come out from my screening straight away and say it was not as good, it is still a highly thrilling experience that will have you on the edge of your seat. The tension certainly mounts as they get closer to attempting this feat. Plus, the sub-plot of the sacrifices our climber is having to make was interesting to see.

But with The Dawn Wall still fresh in the memory, I think the timing of seeing this certainly effected my views. It is a shame that The Dawn Wall hasn't had the same coverage as Free Solo has. The latter will get the plaudits. But I do hope that people discover the former eventually.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Three Identical Strangers

Documentaries as a film genre continue to go from strength to strength. The amount of amazing true stories that emerge onto the big screen the last few years have amazed me. But I think this latest might be the most amazing, strangest and eventually disturbing stories ever put to film.

When you read the synopsis of this story, you think it can't be true. But from the very first scene, they get right into it. Twenty minutes in, and you feel as if that was the story. Where else could go they? After that astonishingly feel good opening, the story gets deeper with some dark and upsetting results. Despite this story getting a lot of media attention in America in the early 90's, I knew nothing of this unique discovery.

The interviews with the people involved that were cut between the archive footage was very compelling and instantly gave you a feel of what they were experiencing and that just beautifully enhanced the whole film.

I am always excited for what documentaries are coming out each year and this one may have the best story. As for the execution, it's very well put together and feels like one of the best of this ever-growing genre.

Whether you are a fan aren't much of one of this genre, you have to see this to believe it.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

The first I heard about this film, I didn't think much of it. But the way it was being marketed, the hype slowly brewing and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as producers of it, I had to see it.

Lord and Miller have always surprised me with whatever they have done. They've contributed to all the Lego Movies, both Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs films, both Jump Street films and were producers on my film of 2017, Brigsby Bear. So with my initial expectations not being that great, I was already on course to be surprised again.

Low and behold, they've done it again with something totally new and fresh to the superhero genre. If anyone feels this genre is restricted and tired, then there is plenty to find in this latest project.
Firstly, the animation is totally original. Whilst looking like the pages of a comic book, there were times where it clashes various other animation styles from various eras and parts of the world and I noticed in some scenes that things that weren't focused were made to like watching something in 3D without the glasses.

With the technical side oozing with positivity, could the story match it? For me, it eventually does. It develops nicely for the first half with a solid amount of laughs with its clever self-referential humor that always wins me over. But when a dramatic revelation takes place with the emergence of new characters, the heart of the story begins to flourish and what we get is a emotional finish whilst still having a laugh along the way.

Everyone in the voice acting department did a pretty good with their characters. Not major exceptions, so all I'll say is great job by Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Harvey, Hailee Steinfeld, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Kathryn Hahn, Liev Schreiber and Nicolas Cage who has had a pretty good 2018 with voice acting.

The only negative I would like to mention is a picky one, but there were times where the pacing was too fast in terms of processing the gags. Also, the animation style at times felt nauseous. The way it moves around can mess with your senses which I feel to also be a good thing in relation to the originality of the animation style. Hence, why these negatives are me being picky.

This was a really fun time, and I think will many agree with and me and call this the best Spider-man film. The choice of story made me remember why I think Spider-man and the world around it. It took me back to the brilliant 90's TV series, especially with the addition of multiple dimensions and the universes. Lord and Miller have once again put everyone on watch and shown what can be done to a much beloved product if you have a laugh with it and aren't afraid to go a bit silly every now and then. When this brilliant duo commit to something, it works beautifully, no matter out of hand it may look. It's such a shame that their work on the most recent Star Wars never got completed with them at the helm.

I hope everyone checks this out as this is not just for the comic books fans. I feel this to be a pretty accessible watch or at the very least something that needs to be experienced due to the original look to it.
It's only a matter of time before we get a sequel, and I cannot wait to see another installment. Films with a lot of joy and fun I find to be a rare find these days, and we should champion this one as much as we can.

Finally, I must mention that there is a post-credits scene and it was very funny. It opens the door to where the sequel could go and what happens in the scene is extremely funny and the icing on the cake to the evolution of the character of Spider-Man.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Mortal Engines

I was pretty excited for this one. The concept sounds like it could be well utilised on screen, and Peter Jackson was involved on the production side of things.

However, the general hype didn't seem to be that big and the reviews coming out from America were sub-par.

So with that in mind, I was still going in hopeful of a fun time at the very least.

It sets you up nicely for the world we're being introduced to, it has cool action set-piece to get us going and there was some nice comedic moments. But whilst I was having fun with it, the execution of the story and character development felt rather average by the end.
So for the rest of the film, I was thinking of what could have been for this film that has a lot of potential with such strong source material.

From the performance side, I think everyone did a satisfactory job but none were exceptional. Hera Hilmer did a pretty good job as the lead considering that she's never done anything this big. The strength of her character was very noticeable in her performance and I would happily see her in more films. It was great to see Robert Sheehan heavily involved as he is more known for British TV work. It's always fantastic to see Hugo Weaving. But sadly this was not a scene-stealing performance. There was nothing wrong with it. But you expect so much more from Weaving, as he always delivers. The only other performance I wanted to mention was Stephen Lang whose character and his story arch was the most compelling part of the film. If the rest of the film was as strong as this portion, then we could be seeing another fantasy franchise being created.

But despite all of the potential, I think this may the only one we'll get. I will give it a pass rating as the whole film is perfectly fine, I'm a sucker for the steampunk genre, the visual effects are very good, there is fun to be had, there's a sense of adventure and the action for the most part is rather thrilling.
But I think like with similar outcomes of Valerian and Jupiter Ascending, it was a missed opportunity to fully fledge.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Roma

A new Alfonso Cuaron film excites multiple groups within the film industry. His back catalogue have impressed the mainstream audiences as well as the schooled experts.

Whether or not I have liked his past work, from a technical standpoint, it is always of a high quality.
I have come to terms with my disappointment for Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban by reminding myself of the good stuff about it, Children Of Men is a really enjoyable sci-fi drama and Gravity I feel is his masterpiece and one of the greatest films of the current decade.

With this new release, we have a distribution with Netflix plus a very small cinematic release. Sadly, it's the small screen for me and I was fearing that a part of my experience would be lost as Cuaron's films are certainly to be appreciated at the cinema more than anywhere else.

It certainly has everything you expect in a Cuaron film. It has those long impressive takes that perfectly shot and you can that every shot has been thoroughly prepared in making sure it looks perfect. But I think for the majority of the film, that is all I was noticing.
There is a story in here, but it took me a while to fully get into it. It was probably until a few moving moments in the final act that I fully got what this story is trying to tell. But in the end, the story felt more like it just Cuaron and his team documenting a real-life family during a typical mundane time in their life. That will work from some people, but not always with me. But I will still give props to the Mexican cast, especially the central character played by Yalitza Aparicio.

The film is clearly a technical marvel. It's shot beautifully, the combination of the long tracking shots and the impressive sound design made it quite the atmospheric experience. Some of the scenes that truly show the scale of this production was impressive to watch and a shame that this never got a wide big-screen release.

But for me, the story and characters did not engage me enough to be totally blown away by the film. I like the themes, but the execution of it never felt jaw-dropping and an aspect to this film that had to spread the word about. Maybe not seeing it on the big screen could be the main reason.

However since seeing it, the more time I think about it, I seem to appreciate it more and more. So it while it is on the cusp of an exceptional rating, I might sneak it over that line in a few years time.

Rating: 7/10

Review: The Girl In The Spider's Web

The Millenium franchise I would say has had a pretty good time with its film adaptations. The Swedish trilogy starring Noomi Rapace are a great watch, David Fincher's version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a really well made American re-make. So the pressure is certainly on for this latest addition and it is one of the two novels that was not written by original author Steig Larsson.

I wasn't really that excited for it as I don't think we needed another story involving the characters of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Plus, the hype in general wasn't too great either.

I actually ended up enjoying this more than expected. I liked how the story was structured, how the sub-plots eventually crossed over into the main plot and most importantly the action was pretty consistent in their content and execution throughout.

While it is sad not to see Rooney Mara reprise her role as Salander, I was happy to see the brilliant Claire Foy take the reigns. Foy as she seems to do with everything did a great job in the role. I can always see her full commitment to any role she is given and this was no different. I could feel her characters struggles and Foy kept my believability of Salander being a top hacker and someone who could kick some serious ass.
I was pretty disappointed with the way the character of Mikael Bomkvist was used. For someone so integral to the Larsson novels, the inclusion of him in this film seemed pretty pointless. Sverrir Gudnason was given very little to do and felt more in the way than anything else.
However, I was happy with Lakeith Stanfield's contribution. The last year or so has been quite memorable for Stanfield and I felt he did a good job of keeping the film moving along whenever his sub-plot was given some screen-time.
Another performance I feel I should mention is Sylvia Hoek's. While it wasn't exceptional it was completely serviceable and everything you expect. I was more happy to just see her in another film after her strong showing in Blade Runner 2049.

Speaking of strong, the technical side is certainly the films biggest strength. The wintry landscape gives you many wonderful shots to work with and they made the most of it whenever they could. The cinematography was gorgeous to look at and the costume and production design was very noticeable.

Despite all the praise, this for me is the weakest of the film adaptations. Every department was just not as strong as the other films in this series. But I think the biggest reason for it being the weakest is that the plot was lacking in depth and the content not being as dark as its predecessors.

That being said, I still felt this to be a pretty solid and enjoyable crime action-thriller. Foy continues to show how talented she is, the story is interesting and moves along at a nice pace and the action is pretty entertaining and frenetic.

Rating: 7/10

Review: The Kindergarten Teacher

I was originally planning to see this at the Leeds International Film Festival back in November. However, various reasons prevented me from catching the screening I had secured a ticket for.

Having eventually got round to it, my expectations were pretty solid as the hype for this film is solely due to the Oscar buzz surrounding Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance in this. I feel her to be a very talented actor that does not get mentioned enough. But that might be down to the fact that we haven't seen her do a feature film in four years. The last time I saw her was in 2014's Frank.

Gyllenhaal has certainly returned with a bang with a terrific performance. The story starts off well and the route its going down showed great potential with all the right ingredients for an interesting tale. As the performances from everyone enhance, the story manages to get more psychological and almost Hitchcock-like which surprised and disturbed me at the same time. Then we get a pretty strong finale that sees Gyllenhaal shine brightest.

I have to say the hype is real and Gyllenhaal gives a pretty impressive performance. Whilst feeling highly believable, the mentally disturbed side of her character felt beautifully subtle and very realistic. So much so, that you could still feel sympathy for her character even you witness things in this film that you would totally disagree with. To walk that fine line takes great talent.
I also have to mention the great work by child actor Parker Sevak. His chemistry with Gyllenhaal was highly engaging and by himself was a constant scene-stealer. The innocence was oozing out of him and he became and easy character to root for.
I have to mention the casting Gael Garcia Bernal. I have a fair amount of his previous work where he is usually the lead and speaking his native language of Spanish. He is probably Mexico's biggest actor and I was delighted to see him involved in a project like this.

Outside of the writing and the performances, there's very little else to speak of. It's shot really well and the general look of it is perfectly fine but nothing exceptional.
This is certainly a film that is all about the story and its characters.

There's also no real negatives to speak of. If I was being picky, I guess the execution of some parts I felt could have been bettered. But in the end, there was little to downgrade my viewing experience. So it's just a matter of how much I liked it.

I felt this to be a pretty good drama with top performances, especially by Gyllenhaal and Sevak. Their chemistry is what makes or beaks this film when they're on-screen together, I thought it was constantly engaging and therefore a large amount of the film had my heavily invested.
I liked how it wasn't afraid to flirt with its psychological aspect and tease us about potentially taking the story down a dark path. But it never fully went there, and I felt that made the film the strongest it could be. I can't quite see Gyllenhaal get enough awards buzz. But it is certainly one that is worth watching.

Rating: 7/10