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This week, there are NINE new films out for you to choose from: No.1 US horror for British actor Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out, singalonga tosh in Beauty and the Beast, a film that looks weird as hell in Malibu Road, terrorist drama in 1603, K-Stew in something weird – Personal Shopper, Studio Ghibli-style animation in A Silent Voice, Iranian drama in The Salesman, a ‘shock horror’ film with no shocks in Wolves At The Door, and an old man loses an olive tree in The Olive Tree.
Get Out…
When I first saw this trailer – and the only time I have done – I don’t think the title even showed up onscreen… unless I somehow missed it in the cinema.
Daniel Kaluuya plays Chris Washington, a young black man who visits his white girlfriend’s family estate where he learns that many of its residents, who are black, have gone missing, and he soon learns the horrible truth when a fellow black man on the estate warns him to “get out”. He soon learns this is easier said than done.
Also starring Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones and Keith Stanfield, this went to No.1 in its first week of release and has had good word spread about it, so I’m looking forward to this.
I’ll struggle to reach No.1, though, with the next film showing on a zillion more screens….
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Beauty and the Beast finds Emma Watson taking time off from fannying around at the United Nations to become Belle in a new live-action Disney retelling of a tale I never saw in any other form previously, and I am unlikely to indulge in this latest version of girlie nonsense, also.
If you’ve been under a rock since the beginning of time, then it’s an adaptation of the classic fairy-tale about monstrous Prince Adam (aka the Beast, and not the X-Men kind), portrayed by Dan Stevens (The Guest), and young Belle, who fall in love. Awww…..
Directed by Bill Condon (Mr Holmes, The Fifth Estate), the film also stars Luke Evans, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ewan McGregor, Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, Kevin Kline, Stanley Tucci and Josh Gad, and I will give it a wide berth.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Malibu Road
Dr. Raymond Forrester (Montgomery Markland), professor of psychology at UCLA, takes student and Hollywood starlet Dorothy Crowder (Lillian Solange Beaudoin) to a Malibu hotel of questionable reputation. The two ingest LSD, sent in a mysterious package to Forrester, and become some of the first Americans to go on a psychedelic experience. The experience takes a turn for the deadly during New Year’s Eve 1960 and now the duo must rediscover reality or be trapped in an endless cycle of sex, drugs and murder in ‘paradise.’
Also starring Michael Angels, Jessica Jade Andres and Emilia Bogdanova, the film looks weird as hell, but that it also looks intriguing enough to just about work.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
1603
As an Asylum seeker, Aryan (Danny Darren, who also directs) starts to integrate himself in to the film industry, not all is what it seems as a filmed action scene goes horribly wrong when it is attacked by terrorists. As the sole survivor he is blamed as an insider for the activists. The only person to stand by him is an English woman who carries his child. As the country that welcomed him turns against him publically, his only saving grace seems to be the law that protects him. Detectives start to dig deeper in to Aryans past and find evidence of military training which adds more weight to the conviction that the public are crying out for. Time for a deal or is this man really innocent?
Also starring Crispian Belfrage and Rachel Marquez, I do like the look of this so have to see it soon.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Personal Shopper is a very weird-looking film that revolves around a ghost story that takes place in the fashion underworld of Paris, and stars Kirsten Stewart, along with Lars Eidinger and Sigrid Bouaziz, and… maybe worth watching.
That said, the length is 105 minutes, which I’ve deduced over the years is the optimum length for a movie – not too short, and not too long.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
A Silent Voice (aka Koe no katachi) is a Japanese animation which looks similar in style to last year’s Your Name.
The story revolves around Nishimiya Shoko, a grade school student who has impaired hearing. She transfers into a new school, where she is bullied by her classmates, especially Ishida Shouya. It gets to the point where she transfers to another school and as a result, Shouya is ostracised and bullied himself, with no friends to speak to and no plans for the future. Years later, he sets himself on a path to redemption.
Similar to Your Name, this sort of sketchy animation isn’t really my bag, but it does work for a lot of people.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
The Salesman
Forced to leave their collapsing house, Ranaa and Emad, an Iranian couple who happen to be performers rehearsing for Arthur Miller‘s “Death of a Salesman” rent a new apartment from one of their fellow performers. Unaware of the fact that the previous tenant had been a woman of ill repute having many clients, they settle down. By a nasty turn of events one of the clients pays a visit to the apartment one night while Ranaa is alone at home taking a bath and the aftermath turns the peaceful life of the couple upside down.
Starring Taraneh Alidoosti, Shahab Hosseini and Babak Karimi, this is doing nothing for me.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Wolves at the Door
Four friends gather at an elegant home during the Summer of Love, 1969. Unbeknownst to them, deadly visitors are waiting outside. What begins as a simple farewell party turns to a night of primal terror as the intruders stalk and torment the four, who struggle for their lives against what appears to be a senseless attack.
Starring Katie Cassidy, Elizabeth Henstridge, Jane Kaczmarek and Adam Campbell, this looks like a ‘shock horror’ film with no shocks.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
The Olive Tree
Alma is a young girl with emotional problems and a special relationship with her grandfather Ramón, an old country man who stopped talking about 12 years ago after his son, Alma’s father, sold a 2000-years-old olive tree in order to open a restaurant. Dominated by the sadness and the melancholia by the loss of his most beloved tree, Ramon spends his days visiting the place where the olive tree was planted, hoping the day the tree returns. Unable to bear the situation any longer, Alma looking for the olive tree, discovering that it was acquired by a Germany’s energy company located in Dusseldorf. Without money or resources, Alma convinces her uncle Alcachofa and her friend Rafa (who has a love interest for her) to go in a truck from Spain to Germany to recover the tree, starting a travel with unexpected consequences for everyone…
Starring Anna Castillo, Javier Gutiérrez, Pep Ambròs and Manuel Cucala, this has had critical plaudits, but to me it looks like: man loses tree, man gets tree back 10 years later.. the end. The feelgood story of the ages!
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.