Film Review: Luce

"If You Don't Conform To What She Wants Then Suddenly You're The Enemy..."

Debuting at this year's Sundance Film Festival to an overwhelmingly positive critical reception, Luce is the latest from Nigerian-born filmmaker, Julius Onah, whose previous high profile release in the form of Netflix's, The Cloverfield Paradox, immediately branded him as a cinematic fish out of water, with the big budget sequel undoubtedly one of the silliest and most misjudged so-called science fiction movies in recent memory. Moving away from nonsensical space stories for the time being and into the realm of Hitchcockian-esque drama, Onah's latest is a deliciously directed and incredibly well crafted step in the right direction, an absorbing and beautifully looking low-key mystery which finely balances cutting familial tensions, a contemporary social commentary and a Twin Peaks style small-town uncertainty revolving around the film's titular character, one brought to life thanks to a gripping central performance from Kelvin Harrison Jr. who continues to impress after his work on the underrated 2017 horror, It Comes at Night. 

With it being difficult to explain the central plot of the film without moving into spoiler territory, Luce primarily follows Harrison Jr.'s model all-star student, years after he was adopted away from his war-torn homeland of Eritrea and into the white-picket fenced household of Amy and Peter Edgar, portrayed superbly by Naomi Watts and Tim Roth respectively who reunite after their work together on Michael Haneke's English language shot-for-shot remake of Funny Games. After concerns regarding Luce's beliefs are raised by Octavia Spencer's (The Shape of Water) overbearing teacher, a battle of wills and words soon begins between both professor and student as certain mysteries surrounding Luce's personal life and agenda soon materialise, much to the dismay of Watts' Amy who begins to wonder whether her beloved adopted son is actually who she thinks he is. With the the film managing to expertly handle that fine line between exposition and intelligent storytelling, Luce works thanks to a narrative approach which begs the audience to make up its' mind regarding what they are observing on screen, and in an era in which cinema annoyingly finds the need to spoon feed the plot to cater for everyone in the audience, Onah's second high profile release is an absorbing redemptive piece which will make you contemplate events long after the closing credits. 

Overall Score: 8/10

Film Review: Doctor Sleep

"When I Was A Kid, There Was A Place, A Dark Place. They Closed It Down, And Let It Rot. But The Things That Live There, They Come Back..."

With Hollywood at a particular period in cinematic history where every single word written by the steady hand of Stephen King is set for some form of live action adaptation, with the release of Pet Sematary and It: Chapter Two alone this year resulting in very successful box office returns, the release of Doctor Sleep this week reminds that the best King adaptation in the form of Stanley Kubrick's horror masterpiece, The Shining, has yet to be truly tested even after nearly forty years. With King's original novel undoubtedly one of his most iconic and well regarded by literary readers, the fear of any sequel to the tale of the Torrance's and the Overlook Hotel were first raised when Doctor Sleep was published in 2013, and whilst King's novel passed the time nicely during my university years with some interesting ideas and charming call backs to its' predecessor, the narrative never held the same sense of supernatural wonder that the 1977 original novel had in spades. Cue the big screen adaptation therefore, one directed by the overly impressive skills of horror aficionado, Mike Flanagan, the mind behind both Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House series and of course, Stephen King's own, Gerald's Game, and what we have is a movie which succeeds in paying both homage to Kubrick's classic horror and staying as faithful to the novel of Doctor Sleep as humanly practicable, a decision which ultimately simultaneously both hinders and supports Flanagan's latest big screen project. 

With Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining only carrying a slight sense of faithfulness to the source material in the first place, Flanagan's movie directly follows events which take place in the 1980 horror classic after a decision was made that most people heading into Doctor Sleep would have probably seen Kubrick's portrayal of events rather than read the original text, and with a central narrative which follows a now alcoholic and middle-aged Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) and his discovery of both others who "shine" and Rebecca Ferguson's (Mission Impossible: Fallout) band of vampire-esque killers who feed off the "steam" of those inflicted with the power of the shining, Flanagan's movie for those who would not have read the novel is a substantial diversion from the confines of the Overlook Hotel. Blending mystery, scenes of downright horrific violence and a really beautiful genre aesthetic, Doctor Sleep does have elements of real intrigue, even for someone who has read the source material, but at a staggering two and a half hours, the movie doesn't half drag at times, particularly when we are exposed to utterly blasphemic reconstructions of scenes from Kubrick's original movie and a tendency to focus on particular characters who suffer from a unhealthy balance of being both uninteresting and underwritten. The Shining it is not, but as a direct adaptation of a middling King novel, Flanagan's movie is good enough but fails to ignite the sense of haunting wonder its' predecessor continues to evoke even after nearly forty years. 

Overall Score: 6/10