Film Review: Long Shot

"I’m Going To Try And Conduct Myself In Such A Way That Does Not Risk Global Humiliation..."

Mixing together the almighty and Oscar winning talent of Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road) with erm, Seth Rogen, (The Interview) Long Shot is the latest from American filmmaker, Jonathan Levine, who reunites with Rogen after their work together on the 2011 comedy drama, 50/50, for a romantic comedy which attempts to balance political and social satire with a well-worn tale of unlikely and improbable love. Based around a screenplay from the double-act of Liz Hannah and Dan Sterling, famous for their individual work on the likes of The Post and The Interview respectively, Long Shot is that rare sight in contemporary cinema, an American comedy which actually works, and whilst the central romance at the heart of the story does indeed venture into gargantuan levels of cliche come the end of the almost two hour runtime, Levine's movie works predominantly elsewhere, with a mix of knowing, and at times, strikingly unintentional, modern-day satire, pleasantly supplementing a likeable and utterly charming core relationship, one which gleefully bursts with volcanic levels of chemistry and pushes the final product into something which although might not be at all memorable, is rather enjoyable.

Coined in the trailer by one of the film's supporting actors, the one and only, O'Shea Jackson Jr., (Straight Outta Compton) as having a very familiar central narrative to that of Garry Marshall's 1990 classic, Pretty Woman, Levine's movie at least jumbles up the profession of the leading characters, with Seth Rogen's Fred Flarsky not exactly the first person to come to mind when it comes to the prostitution business, with him instead being landed with the role of an idealistic, rough-edged journalist with a penchant for thinking out loud, a character trait of which soon finds him unemployed and penniless. Enter Theron's Charlotte Field, the highly popular Secretary of State with eyes for the presidency who in her earlier teenage years used to babysit a young and lovestruck Flarsky, and the two suddenly reconnect after Field utilises Flarsky's innovative written word to boost her appeal to the American public. With worldwide trips on the menu, the two suddenly become attached to each other by the hip, resulting in the film's central and heartwarming romance, and with an abundance of hilarious set pieces, including one of the best inverted sex scenes in cinema history and a heavy night on the town which results in a majorly mistimed hostage negotiation, Long Shot goes along way to make you care for the film's characters, and even with a runtime which does slightly drag come the final act, Levine's movie is a solid slice of American comedy cheese with added Charlize Theron. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: The Aftermath

"There May Not Be An Outward Show Of Hatred, But It’s There Below The Surface..."

Returning to the cinematic good books after her superb and woefully unappreciated performance in Colette earlier this year, Keira Knightley leaps onto the big screen once again in The Aftermath, a wartime romantic drama which suffers from the strange cinematic disease of having a trailer which not only is much shorter and sweeter than the final body of work, but is entirely much more engaging and interesting. Directed by James Kent and based on Rhidian Brook's 2013 novel of the same name, Knightley's latest sees her take the lead role of Rachael Morgan, a wartime wife who is forced to move to the remains of a now defeated 1946 Hamburg, Germany in order to finally reconvene with her husband, Jason Clarke's (First Man) Colonel Lewis Morgan, after years of separation due to the strenuous wartime effort. After arriving in the wintery and heavily damaged landscapes of the previously Nazi infested enemy territory, Rachael and her husband are quickly moved into the grand and overly modern residence of Alexander Skarsgård's (Big Little Lies) Stefan Lubert, a grieving German architect, resulting in a relationship which begins resentful but soon turns into a spiral of romance and passion.

With acting pedigree this superb and a tantalising trailer which I can admit to it adequately catching my eye, the truth of the matter is that The Aftermath should undoubtedly be a much better and more interesting piece than it actually is. With a pace which would damage the reputation of a snail if comparisons were made, Kent's movie wanders aimlessly through non-existent levels of drama as it attempts to paint a picture of post-war trauma and resentment between the tea-drinking Brits and the Germans, with the central relationship between Lubert and Morgan sort of acting as a lightweight personification as they soon fall in love behind the back of the war obsessed Colonel Morgan. With Knightley doing the best with what she is given from the script, her performance by no means matches the bipolar nature of her strangely annoying character, one who lacks any semblance of charm or likability and one who also contradicts every action and feeling every five seconds to an extent it would have probably been easier if she hadn't made it through the war in the first place. With a couple of half decent set pieces. including a rather well played piano section, and a superb supporting performance from Skarsgård, The Aftermath is no means terrible, it just doesn't seem to have a pulse, and for a movie which verges on the two hour mark, Kent's movie ultimately is blandness personified. Shame

Overall Score: 4/10

Film Review: Mute

"I Love You So Much Leo, But You Don't Know Me..."

Engaging with and including myself within the small minority who can actually stand up proudly and state that 2016's Warcraft was actually better than most critics gave the movie credit for, Duncan Jones' career has drifted from contemplative low-budget success story (Moon) to big budget science fiction spectacular (Source Code) in a reasonably swift amount of time, and with the release of Mute this week as the latest Netflix original after years of development hell, Jones' long-term project, one deemed as the "spiritual sequel" to 2009's Moon, is finally brought to life, if only on the small screen. Following Alexander Skarsgård's (The Legend of Tarzan) Leo, the titular mute barkeep who attempts to solve the mystery of Seyneb Saleh's Naadirah's sudden disapearance within the heart of a future-world Berlin, Jones' latest is unfortunately a cliched and utterly soulless Blade Runner rip-off, one which attempts to sew together a noir-esque primary plot thread amidst stereotypical Russian gangsters, The Fifth Element style campness and eerily ill-judged set pieces which are as ridiculous as they are jaw-droppingly stupid, resulting in Mute conforming to the fate of The Cloverfield Paradox by being yet another Netflix funded let down. 

With Sally Hawkins managing to convey both rigorous emotion and heartwarming depth to a character of similar ilk in Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water, the inclusion of Skarsgård's Leo, the speech-free central character of the piece, is somewhat gimmicky and undeniably underwritten, with Hawkins' character necessary in furthering the audience's understanding of the relationship between herself and Doug Jones' aquatic monster, a level of narrative depth which is completely absent from the entirety of Jones' screenplay, resulting in Skarsgård's performance coming off as nothing more than a growling, angst-ridden puppet which is used to facilitate the furthering of plot when necessary. Whilst the opening forty five minutes of the piece is somewhat interesting, even with a heavy handed dose of exposition which explains absolutely everything in a excruciatingly painful paint-by-numbers fashion, the film really turns after a showdown between Leo and Dominic Monaghan's sex facilitator on a bed next to a staggeringly imaginative pleasure doll which resulted in one of the biggest unintentional laughs I will have this year, and with the emergence of the similarly awful Paul Rudd (Ant Man) as the least threatening villain of the year so far and Justin Theroux's (Mulholland Drive) overly misjudged paedophilic sidekick, Mute turns overly wacky and staggeringly dull rather quickly and with a conclusion which doesn't entirely make up for the wait, Jones' latest is annoyingly his weakest work to date, and for a project which took more than a decade to bring to the screen, one could have argued it should have stayed on the cutting room floor. 

Overall Score: 4/10