Last Night in Soho

Official Australian release date: 18/11/21. Viewed: 4/12/21.
Director: Edgar Wright
Actors: Thomasin McKenzie, Anna Taylor-Joy, Michael Ajao, Diana Rigg
Genre: Drama / Mystery
Rating: MA

 

‘Last Night in Soho’ is a blend of coming-of-age story, love letter to London and nostalgic reminiscence of the 1960s, with a nice murder-mystery thrown in for measure! I’ll see anything Edgar Wright makes, with this not being a comedy set in a specific genre, but closer to ‘Baby Driver’ in it’s focus. Ellie (McKenzie) gets into fashion design school in London and her obsession with the 60s (both fashion and music) sets her off on an unexpected journey of both self-discovery and some visions of Sandie (Talyor-Joy) in 60s Soho.

The cast is well-rounded, with John (Ajao) as the friend, Ms Collins (Rigg) as the landlady, Jack (Smith) personifying the 60s, Jocasta (Karlsen) as the frenemy and Terence Stamp as the old storyteller. After a normal set-up, a trippy second act with an exceptional soundtrack (Dusty Springfield, The Kinks, Cilla Black). You think you know where the finale is heading, but then there’s a few great twists at the end.

I wouldn’t say it turns into horror, but there’s certainly some semi-shocking moments and definitely a nice surprise with where the film ends up. Great performances from both McKenzie & Taylor-Joy, and nice to see Diana Rigg one last time.

Overall: Enjoyable London dream/nightmare mystery.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Dune

Official Australian release date: 2/12/21. Viewed: 3/12/21.
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Actors: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

 

‘Dune’ (or Dune: Part One) is the best attempt so far at translating the books into film, from my recollections of the 1984 & 2000 versions. The first act lays out the landscape and epic scope – Leto Atreides (Isaac) as the Duke/ruler of a powerful planet/army, his partner Jessica (Ferguson) and their son Paul (Chalamet). They’re sent to the desert planet of Arrakis to mine spice, which sets off a chain of intergalactic events, between the Atreides, the Fremin, the Emperor, the Harkonnen and the Bebe Gesserit (don’t worry – it’ll make sense by the end. Or it wont!)

Pretty star-heavy cast, with everyone getting some screentime during the 2.5 hours – Chani (Zendaya) and Stilgar (Bardem) as two of the indigenous desert-dwelling Fremin, the grotesque Baron (Skarsgard), the Duke’s right-hand-man Gurney (Brolin), fun-soldier-guy Duncan (Momoa), bad-bald-guy Rabban (Bautista) and Dr Kynes (Duncan-Brewster). The most disconcerting thing of the film is that Paul’s mum is only 12 years older than him in real life! The film throws in a fair bit of mythology/prophecy and universe-building, but not too much to overwhelm. The dragonfly helicopter/planes are particularly cool!

The score and use of drums is great, adding lots of momentum and while it always feels like this is setting up for the next film(s), it’s still an enjoyable journey following Paul (from real-world Norway to Jordan & the UAE) and seeing his character grow as he tries to figure out how his visions might fit his world and the galaxy. Will expect slightly more from the sequel!

Overall: Well-executed sci-fi tale

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Official Australian release date: 25/11/21. Viewed: 19/11/21.
Director: Andy Serkis
Actors: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’, the second non-MCU Venom film, sees alien symbiote Venom and Eddie Brock (Hardy) learning how to share the same body. The film introduces Cletus Kasady (Harrelson) as a disturbed killer and his partner Frances (Harris) early on, before focusing on the odd-couple relationship of Venom/Eddie for the first act, which is quite fun. Anne (Williams) and Dan (Scott) are back as Eddie’s ex and her new partner.

Mulligan (Graham) is the cop trying to figure out what’s going on with Eddie and has a link to Kasady & Frances. Besides Tom & Woody – both good to see having fun with their characters – no-one really gets much screen time, but things move along very quickly (only ~90min total), as the final showdown when Kasady becomes “Carnage” inevitably happens.  

Some solid CGI, which is required, but a poor soundtrack and a bit of a nothing plot. Feel like we needed more Dan & Mrs Chen (Lu) – the comedy aspects are done quite well and some of the action is good, but there’s nothing really new or too exciting. End credits scene is worth waiting for.

Overall: Again, fun enough, but nothing substantial

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

 

No Time To Die

Official Australian release date: 11/11/21. Viewed: 14/11/21.
Director: Cary Fukunaga
Actors: Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch
Genre: Action / Thriller
Rating: M

‘No Time To Die’ is Daniel Craig’s fifth, and final, time playing James Bond, and puts him up there as the  second best Bond (after Sean Connery). This film follows closely from ‘Spectre’, even though six years have passed in real life, and adds more relevance to that film’s plot. The opening is interesting, as it delves into Madeleine (Seydoux)’s background, introduces Safin (Malek) and only then do we get to present day Bond and Madeleine in Italy (since Bond has “retired”) and the titles (average song).

This film has a great ensemble cast, with Felix (Wright) back for his 3^rd time, Paloma (de Armas) having a fun CIA cameo in Cuba, Nomi (Lynch) as the next-gen 007 who grows on you, Primo (Benssalah) as the henchman and Blofeld (Waltz), Q (Whishaw), Tanner (Kinnear), Moneypenny (Harris) and M (Fiennes) all back. I find some of the most enjoyable aspects are when Bond works/interacts with the MI6 team – Q, M, Tanner & Moneypenny – rather than as a lone wolf.

While long, it’s a pretty well-made save-the-world story, with Safin having some sort of nanobot WMD, with high stakes and a fair bit of heart, as you hope Bond and Madeleine end up together, unlike Vesper. There’s good intrigue and great locations, including Norway, Jamaica and the Japanese island finale (although filmed on the Faroe Islands). Plenty of excellent stunts and fight scenes, with a satisfactory ending. Thanks for the fun 15 years Daniel Craig! Looking forward to seeing what’s next…

Overall: Fitting finale for the Craig-era of 007.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

Eternals

Official Australian release date: 4/11/21. Viewed: 3/11/21.
Director: Chloé Zhao
Actors: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh
Genre: Action / Sc-Fi
Rating: M

 

‘Eternals’ is both a Marvel superhero film, but also not – unlike some other MCU films having lesser-known superheroes, this is almost a parallel universe, or a ‘What If?’ episode, with 10 new Eternals (good immortal aliens) introduced to us in 5,000BC that help save humans from Deviants (bad aliens), sent by Celestials (big aliens). The film spends most of it’s time in 2021, but has plenty of flashbacks over the previous millennia.

As they’re not mainstream heroes, they all seem to have a generic power, with no-one being too special. As with all ensemble casts, not everyone gets much screen-time and it takes a while to figure out who does what and how they fit in. For the record, Ajak (Hayek) is the leader, with Sersi (Chan; the heart of the film) and Ikaris (Madden) essentially acting as the leads/love interests. The next most screen-time goes to Sprite (McHugh, the “kid”) and Kingo (Nanjiani, a little comedic relief). Then there’s Thena (Jolie, barely used), Phastos (Tyree Henry), Makkari (Ridloff), Druig (Keoghan, such a punchable face) and Gilgamesh (Dong-seok). Once you figure out who’s who, it’s basically over!

There’s not really a “big bad guy” as such, and the whole Celestials thing is pretty laughable, but if you go with it, there’s still quite a bit that doesn’t really come together until the end. The final 30min or so is pretty exciting, but there’s certainly a sizeable lull in the middle. It certainly has it’s moments, with some good CGI, but the stakes never seem quite as high as they should and the tone is often a bit too dour, with not as much fun and effervescence as I’d expect. The post-credits scenes create more questions for the next set of films to answer.

Overall: Not bad, just a bit strained

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

The Last Duel

Official Australian release date: 21/10/21. Viewed: 21/10/21.
Director: Ridley Scott
Actors: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck
Genre: Action / Drama
Rating: MA

‘The Last Duel’ was not quite what I was expecting from a Ridley Scott historical epic – better than ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, ‘The Duellists’ and ‘Exodus: Gods & Kings’, but not of the same calibre as ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Robin Hood’. It’s set in 14^th century France (but no subtitles here, all in English!) with Jean de Carrouges (Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Driver) seemingly ageless knights. Marguerite (Comer) is Jean’s wife and Pierre (Affleck) is the count for which Jacques is a squire. It should be noted that the other main co-stars are Damon’s mullet and Affleck’s dyed blonde hair & goatee!

The first 40min seems a bit scattershot, jumping all over France and to different times during a 20-year period, with lots of blanks. But it soon becomes clear that we’re watching three different retellings from the perspectives of Jean, Jacques & Marguerite, as the plot slowly unveils itself and your assumptions are challenged each time. After the battle at the start, the middle 90min is a bit slow, with it basically being a drama and battle of wills between the four main characters.

The actual duel at the end is really brutal and very well executed. The subject matter, and filming, of the rape that is the focus for much of the film is disturbing and while you admire Marguerite’s courage, the ending left me asking what the point was? I know it’s based on a true story, but the resolution felt unsatisfactory and mostly serves as a bleak reminder of how bad things were for most in past centuries. By no means a bad film, just not as much medieval battling as I was hoping for, or as much humour as I expected from Damon & Affleck.

Overall: Long human-focused drama.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings

Official Australian release date: 2/9/21. Viewed: 1/9/21.

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

Actors: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Leung, Meng’er Zhang

Genre: Action / Fantasy

Rating: M

‘Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings’ (or SCLTR?) feels like the proper start of MCU’s phase 4, with a clear link forming to ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’. We’re first introduced to what seems like a Chinese fairytale, as we follow Wenwu (Leung) and his millennium of power with 10 enchanted rings/bracelets. We then meet Li (Chen), who turns out to be the mum of Shang-Chi (Liu) & Xialing (Zhang).

How the mystical realm of Ta Lo fits in and it’s secrets aren’t revealed until the third act, and after the intro, the film does well to show Shang-Chi & Katy (Awkwafina) living their somewhat unfulfilled lives in San Francisco, before the action starts to heat up when Shang-Chi goes looking for his sister. All the actors are very likeable, especially Leung, who does a great job of making sure Wenwu doesn’t descend into a caricature of a bad guy, but truly feels like a misguided father. Some great cameos also round everything out and it’s always great to see Michelle Yeoh.

While a bit slow in some parts, the martial arts scenes and action near the end are great, without being overwhelming – certainly up there with ‘Hero’ & ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’. Also a nice nod to ‘Raya & the Last Dragon’! Nice ending and character arc for Shang-Chi – I look forward to seeing him find his place in the MCU.

Overall: Enjoyable action film.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.