Last Night in Soho

I can't say I was agog for the latest Edgar Wright, but I was always going to watch it eventually.

Eloise comes to London, but finds herself dropping into the past and lining up with Sandie and her glory days. Only it turns out, it's not all glory and indeed at moments rather gory days. Unfortunately, Eloise isn't finding it easy not to be there, and the past becomes present in very unpleasant ways.

This movie certainly goes places. The nature of the movie changes slowly, and gets very dark indeed. I didn't forsee pretty much anything, so yeah, completely caught by surprise. Pleasantly so! Wright does good work.

All talk is about how good Thomasin McKenzie and Anna Taylor-Joy are, but... I completely failed to realize that was Dame Diana Rigg there! Wow! And of course there's Matt Smith here, but I didn't have a problem disassociating him from his rather more well known performance. And Terrance Stamp! Always a treat!

And indeed, this whole movie is gorgeous to watch, great cinematography with amazing choreography of movements... Definitely check it out if you were hesitating!

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Canom: Let there be Vernage

I note this isn't listed as Venom 2, but Venom: A different subtitle. This is the MCU way, and this is definitely folding into the MCU.

Eddie bumbles his away around his life, not doing much, until Kassidy drags him into the plot of the movie. Indeed, Kassidy makes all the moves, and advances the plot as he becomes Carnage, and does everything he can to make the movie happen while Eddie happens to also be there.

This movie is a tight 97 minutes, which makes it a rare superhero movie that comes in under 2 hours these days. However, it has been pointed out that this movie have been heavily edited, and it certainly feels that. Any moment that could give the movie a breath is squeezed out in order to get to each plot point as it rushes along. Just take a beat, movie, you can afford it.

Woody Harrelson, unsurprisingly, takes the entire movie and is the best thing on screen (although he could do with opening his mouth more and being more audible). Tom Hardy apparently wrote part of the story, and yet doesn't really seem to know what he is doing in any scene, just accidentally being in the right scene at the right time. Naomie Harris should have been in more of this.

A straight forward enough movie. A quick pace that could stand to be a scant bit less quick.

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Drink Moo Cow!

Okay, a little bit of backstory here. Back in season one, Logan has a "starter" area called Burlyington, a 1950s town where the day reset every day (and every day was Friday). Things happens, and it was taken over by the Blue Mage. This season, the PCs woke up in the sequel version, Burlyington 2.0, and because Logan had time to plan, there was a lot going on. Here, we do some investigating.

The name is pretty obvious, but I was the first one to get there!

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The Truffle Hunters

Time to hunt up some truffles!

This is a relaxed documentary where we follow some elderly truffle hunters. Like, they are quite old. But they are still spritely enough to trample around the forest with their dogs and dig up some truffles. Which are then passed on to someone else who then sells them on to other people. It's quite a thing.

While we do follow men with dogs, we also get their thoughts. People are just coming in rampantly to get truffles, and truffles in general are harder to find these days (doesn't surprise me as truffles get hunted to extinction). I can't say it seems to be a luxurious life they live, but they seem happy enough.

And there are a LOT of people who sniff truffles, and we see them sniffing them. I have no idea what they smell like, but that does seem to be the quality people go for the most. (Although we are in Italy, and people smoke a LOT, so I wonder how well they can smell them... or are they smelling truffles because that's the only thing with a powerful enough aroma to get through the lack of smell they have?)

It's a nice documentary, easy pace, and enjoyable fun watch.

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'Til Kingdom Come

Oh good, a documentary about the wonderful combination of religion and politics...

The Christians in small towns America gather together funds and send them to Jews in Israel... which sounds good? And hey, some of them need support. However, ask why: namely because Jews being in Jerusalem is a key feature of the return of Christ, which leads to Armageddon... which is a good thing (to them). Uh...

This movie shows that off pretty well. While the Christians are all "hey, Israel is important, let's give them support," the Jews are "hang on...". But the evangelicals hold a lot of power and sway with the government (this is filmed during the previous US president's term), and that government was more than willing to feed into it, especially willing to move the embassy and everything.

(Which isn't to say I'm expecting the current US president to be much better about this, he's just as Christian as the ones who did this.)

This is a creepy movie, and a lot of things make you go "are you hearing what you are saying?" But for them, it's a feature, not a bug!

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Cryptozoo

Animated movie time... but this definitely is not a kids cartoon.

After experiencing a Baku as a child Joan grew up with the idea of protecting the cryptids. We follow her and Phoebe as they track down the Baku, all for the Cryptozoo, a zoo where people can get to see cryptids and more than a little exploitative. However, Nicholas is also after them, as they make great weapons to sell to the military. Unfortunately, there's been an incident back at the zoo, and when they get back all heck has broken out...

Given that this has people having full on sex, yeah, this isn't for kids... that said, there's no real need for that, so it easily could not have had that if they wanted the movie a bit more available. And there are some big names associated with this, so easily could have gotten attention: Lake Bell, Michael Cera, and Peter Stomare.

Nor is the message ultimately that deep. Not that it's a bad message, and its certainly a colourful movie, but one that could have done better.

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I'm Your Man

It's time for one woman and her robot.

In a new experiment, people are partenered up with robots, and one woman reluctantly gets her own robot. However, she has trouble seeing it as anything other than a robot, which kinda impinges on connecting with him. The robot is designed to be everything she needs... although the thing she really needs is happiness.

You won't be shocked by the plot, this movie still works really well for all that. Maren Eggbert and Dan Stevens are great as leads. (Note, this is a German movie, and Dan Stevens is an English actor... although he speaks flawless German, although they do explain why he has an English accent despite being a robot.)

Just a basic story about being human and connecting, and it's great!

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The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On

Oh, a documentary from 1987 from Japan! Although not a fun one.

Kenzo Okuzaki is a 62-year-old WW2 veteran and one particular event during the war he is aware of is the death of two Japanese soldiers. However, that doesn't sit right with him, and his religious views, so although the crime doesn't hold up any long under law, God's law demands the people responsible face up to the truth, that of murder. And so we follow him as he tracks down people, trying to get some sort of justice.

This is a while ago (even from the point of view of the documentary at the time) so he is talking to people who at best vaguely remember, and most often pass the buck of "it wasn't me, I didn't know about it at the time, I only just got there, I was just following orders".

However, this documentary is two hours long, and it is too long. This may reflect my Western sensibilities in how long it takes to get things to happen, but it does feel like there is stuff that easily could be cut out. I was also surprised about how much people let cameras in to film them.

An interesting documentary, but could be revised for current viewing habits.

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Escape from Mogadishu

A Korean Film, with a definitely different take than what you'd get from an American film.

South Korea and North Korea both have embassies in Somalia... and then it's the 1990s and a war breaks out between the military and the civilians. They get caught up in it, and eventually make the move to get out. Unfortunately, North Koreans are having a bit of a problem and they end up at the South Korean embassy, but even they can't all last long there. But is there a way any of them can get out, let alone both?

Neither of them are having a good time, and when they are forced together, tensions are very high, and not just because of the war in the city. This is a great movie and the character actors do fantastic jobs. By the end, while the authorities of North Korea can jump in the deepest pits, you really are sided with them all to get out alive.

(Conversely, if this was an American movie, no doubt this would have been American Troops criss-crossing the city, shooting everyone, and no-one would be likeable as they bravely deign to acknowledge the city as they casually leave everyone else behind.)

But yeah, we get a more intimate movie with this (than America) and I enjoyed this a lot.

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Savage

It's a New Zealand movie! From back in 2001... which contains the quote "This is America, you can't just shoot everyone!"

A young couple (very loosely in a relationship) drive around, and occasionally pick up hitchhikers for fun. But when they pick a cowboy, they also pick up his troubles, which includes a Maori drug lord and some skinheads. She wanted fun, but what will she have to do to earn the right to wear snakeskin?

This has a great lead performance by Melanie Lynskey...and about the only other person you might recognise is a younger Taika Waititi. That said, there are solid performances all around, and even the skinheads get something of an arc (even if they are still skinheads and get what's coming to them).

I'm not sure if this a classic NZ movie, but glad I saw it. It's really good!

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Sisters with Transistors

A documentary about early female pioneers in the electronica music industry? Don't mind if I do!

As it says above, this is about the female makers of electronic music, from back in the 50s, 60s and 70s. We hear from (and about) names like Suzanne Ciani, Elaine Radigue, Laurie Spiegel and Delia Derbyshire amongst others. We also hear plenty of their music, which basically is the entire backing track of this movie.

(And yes, of course they mention the Doctor Who theme.)

Given the range of music, it's not surprising that while I liked some, other music not so much. When even the subtitles say "drone" you know you are in for a tough listen. But hey, they were popular (in so far as they can be popular and still not well known, which is the point of the documentary) so it's not my tastes that mean anything.

If this sounds anywhere near your interests, give it a watch!

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Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time

Certainly one of the longest titles for a movie!

Marta leaves America for Budapest, to meet up with a man she met at a medical conference. However, when she tracks him down, he doesn't know her. Oops! However, she decides to stay around, takes a job that's rather beneath her skills, all to track the guy down. Yep, she's basically stalking him, but it's a good thing. In the mean time she sort of hooks up with the son of a patient, and then when she does get her man, it's not easy going.

Especially as she isn't the most reliable of narrators. We find out (she talks to a therapist, and this is one of the few movies where that's a good thing) that she has a tendency to make things up and later believe they are real. So how was this first meeting really? And when she is with the chap later, is she really, or is it in her mind?

I'm sure the ending isn't as ambiguous as how I read it, but after that set up, how could I not? Not to mention it ends on an image that might mean something, but I could easily have missed it.

But my main take away from this movie... dang, director Lili Horvat really likes a close up! Back that camera off!

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The Killing of Two Lovers

It's a character piece about a man trying to get back with his family.

That man we see in the first shot is trying to shoot his (separated from) wife and her new lover. From there, he tries to get through the days while he can't really be with his children and his wife is with someone else, and his teenage daughter having her own problems with the family having issues...

To be honest, I'm not sure why this made my short list, but there we are. My main issue is that... I don't like the lead character. He's not a great guy, so him getting back with the wife and the family isn't something I'm rooting for. Which is the basic thesis of the movie, so...

Maybe I should refine my selections better...

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All Light, Everywhere

What we have here is a documentary about the camera, about what it sees, about what it doesn't see. And it's something else.

Take a good look at cameras. In particular, spend a long time looking at police bodycameras, where they are made, how the police are told to use them... but then make everything artier. Artier... ARTIER... now really JUMP up your own butt with pretentiousness... there you go, there's the movie we have!

This has some interesting points to make, about how we look at the world. The body camera sees what the observer sees, but not what the observer does. Technology isn't seamless, images can't get everything. Our own eyes have blindspots, and so do our cameras.

But that's not enough for this movie. We need to see beyond what the camera is pointed at. We need to see the camera itself. We see the documentary makers. We have a voice over tell us things. We have (sometimes) separate captions telling us things.

We get auteur up in this!

And we also get nearly two hours of this. It is a LOT. Myself, I would like this to be made in a more straightforward way, but this method may appeal to someone.

(All this, and nothing about Deep Fakes...)

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Riders of Justice

Hey, a Mads Mikkelsen movie!

A train accident is just an accident.. or is it? One person who was on the train can't stop thinking about it, and finds proof that it was an assassination attempt, and talks to the (military) husband of a woman who died, and they end up doing something about that against the people they find behind it. However, it escalates quickly, and goes in ways you wouldn't expect.

There are some very different performances, from Mads, who gets to do a range of different things, to the "geeks" to his daughter played by Andrea Heick Gadeberg. Despite the action moments of this film, this is more of a character piece as we see people reacting to events and find someone to blame.

That said, it felt a bit slow to me, just reveling in some of the weirder moments as if to go "hey, how about this then?" So... two hours is a bit long for my patience, but that doesn't make it a bad watch.

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Notturno

Documentary time (one of many), about living in the war torn Middle East.

As the line above says, this is about people living in war torn countries. I'm not saying they are living a joyous life, but they are surviving. We see a fair few different people, including patients at a hospital putting on a play about staying strong, and kids telling stories of being under ISIS.

Not a fun movie, but a rather stark portrayal of life. But while this is a crappy time for many, people are getting by, day-by-day. Some are doing better than others. This is like some places in that the people on the low rung are just doing their things and trying to get by, but a lot of other places don't have constant war and imminent death hanging over their heads.

Life endures. It's a shit hand, but life endures.

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Undine

A nice wee film about love and killing people because of water.

Undine breaks up with one boyfriend, but ends up with another one pretty quickly. While passionate, a brief encounter shows she still has feelings for the one old. Well, we can't be having with that, can we?

Undine is a water nymph, and this movie taps into that idea, although I'm not very familiar with the myth. But the brief line on IMDB gives it away (spoilers!), so I wasn't too shocked when it happened. Knowing it was coming, events did flow nicely and it is quite the tale. Not so much of a woman scorned, but certainly a woman with her own problems that has a supernatural touch to it.

Paula Beer gives a good performance as Undine, but I was reminded by Franz Rogowski that I've seen him in a few other things. Thanks to the Wellington Film Society for broadening my horizons!

At only 90 minutes, it doesn't outstay its welcome, and indeed it is a welcome film.

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Titane

I gather that people really love this. Indeed, it won a Palme D'or. It's... weird.

A girl is involved in a car crash, and gets a Titanium skull plate... and later grows up to be a rather psychotic young woman. Conversely, there's father that lost his son, and the woman is looking for a place to hide, so 1 + 3 = 2...

Yeah, as I said, it's weird. The main weirdness is that woman is pregnant, but doesn't seem to be, but is heavy pregnant, but isn't...

Agathe Rousselle puts on a heck of a performance, with not much dialogue, but plenty of screen time to show her stuff. Vincent Lindon also has a heck of a role, and sells a lot of things well.

It's a full on character piece about lengths people will go to, and I can see that it looks like a great movie, but I wouldn't say this is a movie I'll want to watch again.

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The Eternally

Thanks to "early screenings" and because New Zealand has an early time zone, yep, I saw this last night!

Of course, with such an early screening, I do need to be more careful about spoilers than some. That said, you already probably know most of the premise from adverts and basic movie formulas. There were Deviants, and so there were Eternals to battle them. We see some past battles amidst the present day needing to deal with them, but still plenty of present day to deal with.

And at around 2 and a half hours there's a LOT of everything to deal with. To be honest, there are lot of long shots and and HUGE exposition dump that half hour could easily be edited down. And there are some odd editing choices. Aside from the huge Tell Don't Show that occurs, there is a lot of dialogue that is given while the shot is looking at the other person in the scene, who isn't really reacting much. That, to me, smacks of ADR, so I do wonder what happened there. (And yes, there is gay representation, but despite some assurances, I'm not going to say that it can't be edited around with too many issues.)

Gemma Chan, Richard Madden and Lia McHugh are the main leads. Despite Selma Hayek and Angelina Jolie being present in a lot of trailers, they feel more like supporting cast there for star power than actual presences in the movie. And best non-Eternal is easily Harish Patel's Karun. Let's get more of him!

Overall, this will be a movie people will see. I can't see this being a highly ranking Marvel feature, although it's certainly better than a lot.

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Nine Days

My watching of Film Festival films begins with... what sounds like a too adult version of Soul.

A man is watching over people living on earth, and must choose someone else to go from being a soul to being an actual human being. They are given nine days while he assesses them, and we are here for the journey.

While it could be a serious take on Soul, it is entirely it's own thing. We aren't given any context of why or how this is a thing, but we quickly get the idea and see the potential humans on their journey, as well as the interviewer himself learning about living.

Winston Duke is the interviewer, and he does a great job. However, he is easily upstaged by Zazie Beetz who steals all the moments she is on screen. Benedict Wong is enjoying himself too, and all the actors are into making this movie work.

And it does. This isn't big budget, but dang, you can see why it gets the film festival picks...

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