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This week, there are FIVE new films out for you to choose from: dinosaurs are back in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, there’s a British serial killer thriller in Welcome to Curiosity, there’s one of the weirdest films of the year in Lek and the Dogs, McQueen tells the story of fashion designer Alexander McQueen, and love doesn’t always run smooth for Zosia Mamet in The Boy Downstairs.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – it’s the fifth one with the dinosaurs, and this time they’ve got to go back to the island from the last film and save the dinos from extinction, because there’s a volcano on there!
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Read the review!
Welcome to Curiosity is a British film with four interconnected stories surrounding the escape from prison of a notorious serial killer. What was most surprising is not that this appears to be the best film that’s due out this week, but that I’m actually looking forward to a film starring eternal chancer Richard Blackwood!
Director: Ben Pickering
Starring: Amrita Acharia, Jack Ashton, Richard Blackwood, Kacey Clarke, Lili Bordán, Stephen Marcus
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Lek and the Dogs (aka Ivan and the Dogs)
Award winning artist and filmmaker Andrew Kotting adapts Hattie Naylor‘s curriculum, award-winning play for cinema. Based on the extraordinary true story of Ivan Mishukov, who walked out of his Moscow apartment at the age of four and spent two years living on the city streets where he was adopted by a pack of wild dogs. In the recession-ravaged city, the human world is dominated by deprivation and violence. When social breakdown from extremes of impoverishment, cruelty and selfishness starts to set in, a homeless child’s only hope is to turn to feral dogs for company, protection and warmth.
This spellbinding story of survival and need conjures the streets of Moscow in the 1990s through the eyes of a child. With innocence and fear, Ivan’s perceptions of the world are beautifully described, from the acute awareness of hunger and fear, to the innocent understanding of chemical abuse in the ’empty eyes’ of children and the ridiculed ‘Bombzi’.
While watching this trailer, this film, starring Xavier Tchili, looked like a shoe-in for weirdest film of the year. I’ll certainly watch it, but I’m not sure what I’ll make of it until then.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
McQueen tells the story of fashion designer Alexander McQueen, a rags-to-riches story whihc is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of his McQueen’s own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerizing genius of profound influence.
If you’re into fashion, you might like this. Me, I’m not fussed.
Director: Ian Bonhote, Peter Ettedgui
Writer: Peter Ettedgui
Starring: Alexander McQueen, John McKitterick, Joyce McQueen, John Hitchcock, Danny Hall, Koji Tatsuno, Janet McQueen
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
The Boy Downstairs is a case of: Boy Meets Girl. They split up. They later end up in the same apartment building while he’s now dating someone else. None of them can act and it looks dreadful.
At first, I thought The Boy Downstairs had something to do with Zosia Mamet‘s rather androgynous look, but no, that’s nothing to do with this.
Writer/Director: Sophie Brooks
Starring: Zosia Mamet, Matthew Shear, Deirdre O’Connell, Sarah Ramos, Diana Irvine, Arliss Howard
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.