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This week, there are EIGHT new films out for you to choose from: a 1910 French farce with Juliette Binoche in Slack Bay, an intriguing documentary about Ms Houston in Whitney: Can I Be Me, Thai drama in By the Time It Gets Dark, Last Humans – an end of the world drama filmed in Stockport, Brian Cox portrays former Prime Minister Churchill, a love letter to the Swedish capital in Stockholm, My Love, CGI for kids in Rock Dog, and Captain America raises a child prodigy in Gifted.
Slack Bay (Ma Loute) is set in the summer of 1910 and, starring Juliette Binoche, looks to be a French farce that actually really works.
Several tourists have vanished while relaxing on the beautiful beaches of the Channel Coast. Infamous inspectors Machin and Malfoy soon gather that the epicenter of these mysterious disappearances must be Slack Bay, a unique site where the Slack river and the sea join only at high tide. There lives a small community of fishermen and other oyster farmers. Among them evolves a curious family, the Bréfort, renowned ferrymen of the Slack Bay, lead by the father nick-named “The Eternal”, who rules as best as he can on his prankster bunch of sons, especially the impetuous Ma Loute, aged 18.
Towering high above the bay stands the Van Peteghems’ mansion. Every summer, this bourgeois family – all degenerate and decadent from inbreeding – stagnates in the villa, not without mingling during their leisure hours of walking, sailing or bathing, with the ordinary local people, Ma Loute and the other Bréforts. Over the course of five days, as starts a peculiar love story between Ma Loute and the young and mischievous Billie Van Peteghem, confusion and mystification will descend on both families, shaking their convictions, foundations and way of life.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Whitney: Can I Be Me
I would never class myself as someone who’d listen to the music of Whitney Houston on a regular basis, but I am fascinated to see a documentary about her, especially someone who had quite a rise to fame, then fell foul of drugs and sadly, was soon joined by her daughter, Bobbi Kristina. However, I am intrigued to see how this documentary turns out.
The billing states that by the time Whitney Elizabeth Houston was 15, she was singing background vocals for Chaka Khan, Lou Rawls, and Jermaine Jackson. In 1983, she signed a worldwide recording contract with Clive Davis’ Arista Records. However her success came with its fair share of drug use, love affairs, and scandals.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
By the Time It Gets Dark (Dao khanong) is set in 1970 and centres around a former student activist, now a waitress who keeps changing her job, and who goes on to be a film director. All lives loosely connected to each others, but while not a lot seems to happen in the trailer, there’s something that intrgues me about it.
Starring Arak Amornsupasiri, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Achtara Suwan, Visra Vichit-Vadakan and directed by Anocha Suwichakornpong I do want to see this before long.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Last Humans
It’s been 7 months since the outbreak, and both Joel and Jade now must survive the new cruel world. But it becomes more dangerous for them when they discover that they are been hunted, now they must fight for their survival.
A low budget British movie, there looks to be enough in this that interests me, and it was also shot in my hometown of Stockport! I love seeing films shot in and around Manchester, so one even closer to home is a must-see!
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Churchill
June 1944. Allied Forces stand on the brink: a massive army is secretly assembled on the south coast of Britain, poised to re-take Nazi-occupied Europe. One man stands in their way: Winston Churchill, played by Brian Cox.
Behind the iconic figure and rousing speeches: a man who has faced political ridicule, military failure and a speech impediment. An impulsive, sometimes bullying personality – fearful, obsessive and hurting. Fearful of repeating, on his disastrous command, the mass slaughter of 1915, when hundreds of thousands of young men were cut down on the beaches of Gallipoli. Obsessed with fulfilling historical greatness: his destiny. Exhausted by years of war and plagued by depression, Churchill is a shadow of the hero who has resisted Hitler’s Blitzkrieg. Should the D-Day landings fail, he is terrified he’ll be remembered as an architect of carnage.
Political opponents sharpen their knives. General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Montgomery are increasingly frustrated by Churchill’s attempts to stop the invasion. King George VI must intervene. Only the support of Churchill’s brilliant, yet exasperated wife Clementine can halt the Prime Minister’s physical and mental collapse. The untold story of Britain’s most celebrated leader, uncovering the true nature of Churchill’s herculean war-time status and his vital relationship with “Clemmie” – his backbone and total confidant…the love that inspired him to greatness.
I’m not wholly sold on this from the trailer, and reaction has been mixed, so I’m in two minds at the moment.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
Stockholm, My Love is a city symphony, a love letter to Stockholm, the fiction debut of director Mark Cousins and the acting debut of musician Neneh Cherry. It follows one woman’s footsteps through the streets of her native city, on a journey of recovery from a bad thing that happened to her exactly one year before.
It’s an exploration of grief, identity and the power of architecture and urbanism to shape lives, and a celebration of the power of walking and looking to make us all feel just a little bit better. With new music by Neneh Cherry, old music by Benny Andersson (of ABBA) and Franz Berwald, and images by Christopher Doyle and Mark Cousins.
While there’s not a lot going on in both this and the earlier By the Time It Gets Dark, I found myself just waiting for this trailer to end since it didn’t grab me at all.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Rock Dog
When a radio falls from the sky into the hands of a wide-eyed Tibetan Mastiff, he leaves home to fulfill his dream of becoming a musician, setting into motion a series of completely unexpected events.
This looks to be yet another CGI kids movie with zero thought gone into it.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Gifted
Captain America‘s Chris Evans is Frank Adler, a single man raising a child prodigy – his spirited young niece Mary (Mckenna Grace) in a coastal town in Florida.
His plans for a normal school life for Mary are foiled when the seven-year-old’s mathematical abilities come to the attention of Frank’s formidable mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) whose plans for her granddaughter threaten to separate Frank and Mary. Octavia Spencer plays Roberta, Frank and Mary’s landlady and best friend. Jenny Slate is Mary’s teacher, Bonnie, a young woman whose concern for her student develops into a connection with her uncle as well.
This looks dull as hell.
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.