Batch Reviews # 1
In which I attempt to get to the point with reviews of several films in one article
This year I have made but one new year’s resolution. As I don’t really care for them I usually make none, so it’s already a sizeable increase! The resolution is to visit the cinema more often. In fact, it is to watch more films in general. As a lapsed film buff, I have a long list of movies of years past left to catch up on as well as the desire to see new releases.
What I have decided to do is to experiment with a new format. If I am to see more movies this year, I would like to write about as many of them as I can and so I thought I would batch them together. A sort of sporadic review of recent viewing, new and old alike.
I anticipate these looking much like this one — a recent release thrown together with some old ones. The only criteria: that I have seen them recently. Sometimes I will have seen many films so I will select ones that inspire me to write, which may mean good movies that touch me or bad ones that aggravate me! The frequency of these editions may also vary. I will still write stand-alone movie reviews but I will most likely reserve these for things I have actually seen on the big screen.
So without further ado, here is the first of such dispatches. Short(ish) reviews of four films I saw recently.
The Matrix: Resurrections (2021)
I shall start with a brief synopsis of a convoluted plot without spoiling too much. Neo is stuck back in the Matrix with amnesia of all the events of the preceding three films. He is a games programmer and has had enormous success with his three Matrix games that tell the exact story he has supposedly forgotten. Presumed dead by what remains of the real world (Neo’s efforts failed to fully free it), he makes a test programme for the game, alerting Bugs (Jessica Henwick) as it is looping some old code. She realises it’s Neo and a rescue mission is on. During the course of this Neo sees a pod with Trinity who is also still alive. So ensues a mission to free her, with twists and turns and reveals, old characters returning and some new ones too.
My opinion of this film is that ultimately I do not consider it part of the original world the Wachowski’s created. So many contrivances were required to keep Neo and Trinity alive that I feel it would have been better to see new characters have a chance at a new story. It will be fun for some people but it was not for me. I am in fact struggling to think of who this movie was for. Resurrecting old characters leads you to believe that it was for existing fans but this film lacks almost all of the things that gave those movies their appeal.
I personally loved the philosophical material of the first three. The borrowed elements from myths and fables alongside the uber tech cyberpunk was a thrill. That was not for everyone though and is partly why Reloaded and Revolutions were less well-loved. However, they all had clear plotlines, with well-fleshed out characters you could root for and a tonne of slickly produced martial arts action set pieces that still rank among some of the best in cinema. There is none of that in Resurrections sadly.
Instead, we get a sort of panic attack of a movie that has too much going on. The action was limp, the jokes and meta-textual quipping were tiresome and so over the top at one point, I genuinely would not have been surprised to see Keanu Reeves do the ‘Wild Stalyns’ air guitar and break the fourth wall while winking! Somewhere near the end of the first act I honestly lost interest in anything this movie was trying to do or say. It wasn’t that it was terribly made or performed, but it lacked any of the charm of its predecessors and failed to inject any novelty with this alternate approach. It was a bit boring dare I say and a shame for its younger cast members who were short-changed.
The World’s Fastest Indian (2005)
And now for something completely different. Starring Anthony Hopkins this is the true story of Bill Munro, a New Zealand speed freak and veteran shed-engineer, obsessed with his record-breaking 1920’s Indian motorcycle. A budget independent movie that certainly escaped my attention at the time.
This is a charming feel-good affair that leans heavily on Hopkins’ performance. The film depicts one trip in 1967 to the ‘speed week’ event at Bonneville, Utah (the salt flats where land speed records are set each year in the US). Munro’s ambition is to break 200 mph on his bespoke high-speed Indian, modified in his shed in Invercargill, NZ. He is a local hero as his bike is already the fastest in Australia and New Zealand, but his peculiar habits of revving the bike in the early AM, refusing to mow his lawn and peeing on his lemon tree have also earned him a reputation as an eccentric old geezer. The movie sees him spending his meagre savings to fund his trip, his last chance to attempt the record.
I really enjoyed this movie, not least of all for Hopkins’ typically endearing and authentic performance. It is a remarkable tale but its impact comes from the warmth in Hopkins’ depiction of Munro and his unassumingly valiant self-belief. Everywhere he goes, his unconventionality is questioned and would even be shunned were it not for his uncanny ability to win people to his cause. Whether it’s transgender motel clerk Tina, used car salesman Fernando, or even the cliquey speed racers at Bonneville, Bill beguiles them all with honesty and the determination of a man on a mission. Worth your time any day of the week, particularly if you are looking for something uplifting. A characteristically stellar performance from Hopkins and competent handling from Thirteen Days director Roger Donaldson
Shutter Island (2010)
I finally got around to watching this, in my opinion, under-celebrated Scorsese thriller. I loved it! Others have made comparisons to his earlier remake of Cape Fear and I can see why. This is the Martin Scorsese version of Tarantino doing pulp exploitation movies. Self indulgence can be very entertaining if executed as well as it is here.
From the moment we first see the island we hear histrionic horn stabs so ominous it’s like Hitchcock on steroids! You either have to go with it or refuse to suspend disbelief altogether at this point. The set-up is simple but built for plot thickening suspense. Even though it is old, there are some things which I will not spoil. Its fans and detractors alike will tell you that it telegraphs it anyway. That is one huge reason why I loved it — it managed to seem obvious but maintained an element of surprise and ambiguity.
DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a US Marshall sent to investigate a missing patient on the mysterious island which houses an institution for the criminally insane. He is accompanied by his partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) and together they encounter cryptic clues and an array of twists, turns and red herrings as they try to discover the truth. Ben Kingsley plays Dr. John Cawley the hospital administrator whom Teddy suspects of hiding the truth throughout. In a layered character exposition, we see the story unfold as much through Teddy’s fevered dreams and war flashbacks as we do through the investigation.
It is difficult to write much more without giving away a spoiler or two. What I shall say then is this: it looks great (partly the post-war period setting but also Scorsese’s eye for framing, set design and colourisation), the central performances are scenery-chewing top drawer (Kingsley sort of steals the show for me in certain scenes but DiCaprio is also at his mesmerising best) and the plot is noir-esque pulp of the most enjoyable kind! Ham it up more Marty, that’s what I say!
Swiss Army Man (2016)
Where to start with a movie like this! Well, I should start by saying I enjoyed it, but it is likely to be the weirdest movie I see this year and it’s only January! It stands a good chance of winning that title most years actually. Paul Dano plays Hank, a man seemingly marooned and bereft. He attempts suicide at the beginning of the film on a beach where suddenly a body (Daniel Radcliffe) is washed ashore. Distracted by this he approaches the corpse which soon begins letting off flatulent interjections. It is not all he does however and so begins the tale of a lost man and a semi-sentient corpse with bizarrely useful bodily functions.
Despite this utterly strange set-up (and it gets weirder), the film plays out with a sort of indie sweetness and sends up our ideas of social propriety whilst contemplating loneliness and belonging. It is shot inventively (you can tell Daniels spent time making music videos), acted brilliantly by both Dano and Radcliffe and certainly made me laugh a few times. In a world full of reboots and rehashes, Swiss Army Man is as original an antidote as you can get!
Later this year they are bringing out a science fiction affair based on the concept of the multiverse called Everything Everywhere All At Once (which I also wrote about here). A markedly different subject for a film but seeing the level of originality and humour in Swiss Army Man makes me highly interested in their next project.
So concludes the first entry in this new series of batch reviews. I hope you enjoyed it. I still need a proper name for it I think, Reel Dispatches perhaps? Or Communique du Cinema? Tongue slightly in cheek with those, I will try to think of something better in due course. Until next time, happy viewing and please comment if you have enjoyed (or even hated) any of these films.
