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This week, there are SIX new films out for you to choose from: Stephen King horror in IT, murder mystery on a Native American reservation in Wind River, a sniper lies in wait in Insyriated, a hard-hitting prison documentary in The Work, a bank heist in The Vault, and alleged comedy in Goon: Last of the Enforcers.
IT, based on the novel by Stephen King, and previously best known in screen terms as the 1990 TV mini series starring the brilliant Tim Curry, and now it’s in cinemas in a feature-length version.
When children begin to disappear in the town of Derry, Maine, a group of young kids are faced with their biggest fears when they square off against an evil clown named Pennywise, whose history of murder and violence dates back for centuries.
Dircted by Andrés Muschietti (Mama), Bill Skarsgård (Allegiant, TV’s Hemlock Grove) takes the lead as the story’s central villain, Pennywise. An ensemble of young actors also star in the film, including Jaeden Lieberher (Midnight Special), Jeremy Ray Taylor (Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip), Sophia Lillis (37), Finn Wolfhard (TV’s Stranger Things), Wyatt Oleff (Guardians of the Galaxy), Chosen Jacobs (upcoming Cops and Robbers), Jack Dylan Grazer (Tales of Halloween) and Nicholas Hamilton (Captain Fantastic).
The screenplay is adapted by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman, and produced by Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Seth Grahame-Smith, David Katzenberg and Barbara Muschietti, plus Marty P Ewing, Doug Davison and Jon Silk serving as executive producers.
The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Chung-Hoon Chung (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), production designer Claude Paré (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), editor Jason Ballantine (The Great Gatsby), and costume designer Janie Bryant (TV’s Mad Men).
I’m very much looking forward to it.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Wind River centres around a murder which occurred on a Native American reservation, and the investigation by an FBI agent teams, along with the town’s veteran game tracker, Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner).
The FBI is led by Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen), the film is written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, and also stars Jon Bernthal (the only good thing about The Accountant) and Graham Greene.
The film has been released here just over a month after the US saw it, but despite that, and since Taylor Sheridan also wrote Sicario and Hell Or High Water, I’m really looking forward to this.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Insyriated
A mother attempts to keep her family safe as war rages and a sniper lies in wait outside her home. This nerve-wracking study of life in Damascus won an Audience Award at Berlinale.
Writer/Director: Philippe Van Leeuw
Stars: Hiam Abbass, Diamand Bou Abboud, Juliette Navis
I wasn’t too sure what to make of this. It sows the seed of a reasonable idea, but didn’t completely grab me.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
The Work
Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, three men from the outside participate in a four-day group-therapy retreat with a group of incarcerated men for a real look at the challenges of rehabilitation.
I’ve heard good things about this Tucson prison documentary, but if it’s even half as good as they say, why did Dogwoof have to make the trailer so damn irritating? I hope the film’s not like that.
Directors: Jairus McLeary, Gethin Aldous
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
The Vault has a brief premise about how two estranged sisters are forced to rob a bank in order to save their brother… but that this is no ordinary bank.
So what’s out of the ordinary? That the real money is downstairs in the old vault? Who knows, but either way, I wasn’t wowed by this trailer, so I wouldn’t fancy being locked up in this vault!
Director: Dan Bush
Writers: Dan Bush, Conal Byrne
Also stars: Taryn Manning, Francesca Eastwood, Scott Haze, Q’orianka Kilcher, Jeff Gum, Clifton Collins Jr, Keith Loneker
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Goon: Last of the Enforcers stars American Pie‘s Seann William Scott as Doug Glatt, everyone’s favourite enforcer and heart of the team, the Halifax Highlanders.
A pro lockout has reunited old teammates and brought a crew of new players to the bench, but they’ve left him out… Sidelined after one too many hits and now married with a baby on the way, Doug is hanging up his skates and settling into life as an insurance salesman. But when Doug’s nemesis, Anders Cain (Wyatt Russell), is made captain of the Highlanders and new ownership threatens to tear his team apart, Doug is compelled back into action. Ignoring the wishes of wife Eva, Doug heads to the rink, discovering an unlikely training partner in fellow retired enforcer and one-time arch rival, Ross “The Boss” Rhea. Together with grit, passion and unrivaled loyalty, they will grind out one last chance to do what they do best…protect their team.
Directed by Jay Baruchel, who wrote the script with Jesse Chabot, the film also stars Elisha Cuthbert, TJ Miller, Liev Schreiber, Alison Pill, Kim Coates and Callum Keith Rennie, Goon: Last of the Enforcers is out now, but it looks like the sort of thing we’ve seen a million times.
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.