There are eleven new releases out this week, twelve or maybe even thirteen if you count the re-release of a Laurel & Hardy double bill, and a whopping six of them have made it into our weekly list of the top ten films currently on release, according to me.
Disclaimer: This week, I haven’t managed to see 1971, Four Corners or Shooting For Socrates. It is, of course, entirely possible that one or more of those films might have made it onto the list if I’d seen them.
1) A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. If you only see one movie about an Iranian teenage skate-boarding vampire, make it this one. Ana Lily Amirpour‘s stylish debut has echoes of early Jim Jarmusch as well as clever visual references to the silent vampire classic, Nosferatu. Side note: I bought the fabulous soundtrack a few weeks ago and have been listening to it non-stop ever since.
2) Spy. The highest new entry of the week is Melissa McCarthy‘s new action-comedy, which re-teams her with Bridesmaids director Paul Feig.
The set-up sees McCarthy’s deskbound CIA agent being sent into the field after her Bond-alike partner (Jude Law) is targeted by a deadly arms dealer (Rose Byrne). Feig strikes the perfect balance between action and comedy, delivering large quantities of both, while McCarthy delivers her best performance to date, in a role that cleverly allows her to showcase both sides of her comic persona – sweet-natured and likeable on one side, foul-mouthed and angry on the other.
3) Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films. Director Mark Hartley completes his trilogy of docs about exploitation movies, following Not Quite Hollywood and Machete Maidens Unleashed, with this hugely entertaining look at story of Cannon Films.
The focus is most specifically on the years 1979 to 1985, when Cannon was run by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Packed with entertainingly schlocky clips and anecdote-heavy talking head contributions from a wealth of former employees, this is a hugely enjoyable rummage through the bins of film history and must-see for fans of trashy movies.
4) Mad Max: Fury Road. One of the most enjoyable things about George Miller‘s post-apocalyptic thriller is its moments of unexpected weirdness and the way that it makes something beautiful out of them. For example, during one of the film’s rare moments of downtime, there’s a shot of two unidentifiable figures – they could be men or creatures – picking through the blue-filtered desert on stilts that resemble bony limbs, like a Salvador Dali painting come to life. The film also has the most gorgeous-looking explosions you’ll see all year.
5) Second Coming. Striking debut from British playwright Debbie Tucker Green, starring Idris Elba and Nadine Marshall as Mark and Jax, a London couple rocked by Jax’s unexplained pregnancy. Tucker Green tells the story in an intriguing non-linear style that forces the viewer to pay close attention, while the tonal blend of urban reality and the supernatural is extremely compelling.
6) Listen Up Philip. Writer-director Alex Ross Perry‘s acerbic US indie stars Jason Schwartzman as breathtakingly obnoxious author Philip Lewis Friedmann, abandoning the book tour for his second novel in favour of being mentored by literary idol Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce).
The film often drifts off on unexpected tangents, ultimately feeling more like a caustic character study than anything plot-driven. Schwartzman’s brand of deadpan rudeness is perfectly suited to Philip, while Pryce is enjoyably cantankerous and Elisabeth Moss provides a more recognisably human note as Philip’s appallingly-treated girlfriend.
7) The Goob. Guy Myhill’s impressive coming-of-age drama makes strong use of its remote Norfolk fenland locations, giving the region a sense of lawlessness that makes Sean Harris‘ violent would-be-step-father that much more chilling. Newcomer Liam Walpole has an arresting presence as wide-eyed teenager Goob, delivering a performance that could well see him going on to greater things.
8) Man Up. It’s a mystery to me why Lake Bell isn’t much better known. On the strength of this winning performance, she deserves to become the Meg Ryan for the twenty-teens, or whatever we’re calling this decade. Either way, Bell transforms this British romcom, elevating not just the material, but the performances of those around her – looking at you, Simon Pegg.
To be fair, the film has its share of dodgy moments, including the time-honoured heartfelt-speech-in-front-of-total-strangers cliché, but Bell’s endearingly goofy performance completely won me over. Incidentally, Bell newcomers should check out her delightful writing-directing-starring debut In A World.
9) Insidious Chapter 3. Saw and Insidious screenwriter Leigh Whannell has turned writer-director for this prequel.
Stefanie Scott plays a teenager who’s targeted by evil spirits, necessitating the intervention of reluctant psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye), a character who was – spoiler alert! – killed off in the first Insidious movie.
This is light on actual scares and undeniably flawed – the climax is badly rushed – but Whannell creates a nice sense of atmosphere and there are enough creepy scenes to make it worthwhile. It’s also a treat to see Shaye take centre stage for once.
Full disclosure: I didn’t like either of the two previous Insidious movies, but this just about worked for me, partly because Whannell dials down the hideously screechy soundtrack that characterised the first two films.
10) Black Coal, Thin Ice. Diao Yi’nan‘s slow-burning Chinese cop thriller won the Golden Bear at Berlin last year. It stars Liao Fan as a disgraced cop-turned-security guard who becomes obsessed with solving a final grisly murder case that involves chopped up body parts left in piles of coal.
The mystery itself is both dragged out and predictable, but there are individual moments along the way that should grab the audience’s attention, such as a bravura single-take shoot-out filmed in long shot, or a starkly beautiful image of two people ice-skating against a snowy landscape.
I’d also like to put in a good word for John Boorman‘s Queen And Country, a whimsical and charming sequel to 1987’s autobiographical drama Hope and Glory. Callum Turner plays Hope and Glory‘s Bill, now aged 19, and doing national service in the early 1950s while waiting for a call-up notice to Korea.
Turner makes an appealing, if unremarkable lead and there are stand-out support performances from Caleb Landry-Jones, as his wheeler-dealing best mate Percy; David Thewlis, as the strict training camp commander; and, best of all, Pat Shortt as professional skiver Redmond. Overall, the whole thing has a nostalgic Dad’s Army vibe that is extremely pleasing, even if the film itself is ultimately forgettable.
Conspicuous by its absence this week is Survivor, a poorly executed and occasionally laughable thriller that probably should have gone straight to DVD. Milla Jovovich plays a security expert who stumbles onto a terrorist plot and has to go on the run after being framed for the murder of her colleagues. The action is reduced to a series of not very exciting chase scenes and the pacing drags considerably.
The only element of note is that Pierce Brosnan plays the main bad guy, a relentless assassin who might as well be nicknamed the Brosnan2000. Hilariously, at one point, his character is described as having had “so much facial reconstruction surgery, no-one even knows what he looks like anymore”.
Finally, don’t forget, it’s still important to See Smaller Films First. There’s even a Twitter hashtag ready for you to spread the word: #SSFF.
If you’re planning on seeing Electric Boogaloo, Second Coming or Listen Up Phillip, then make sure you see them as soon as you can, preferably this weekend. Smaller films need strong opening weekend support to survive, whereas the likes of Spy will be around for several weeks yet.
