Film Review: Ready or Not

"Our Initiate Then Has The Privilege Of Drawing The Card, And Mr. Le Bail Will Tell Us Which Game To Play..."

Directed by the filmmaking duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, horror aficionado's responsible so far for part of the rather underrated, V/H/S, and the critically massacred, Devil's Due, Ready or Not is the second big-screen end-of-year horror after It: Chapter Two designed to pull audiences out of the rain and into the confines of a nicely heated cinema screen with the promise of B-movie horror tropes and bucket loads of exploitation violence. Brought to the big screen by Walt Disney of all studios, Ready or Not is most definitely not a film for the kids, an ultra-violent, overly knowing black comedy which conforms to the well worn tropes of exploitation B-movies as it follows a simple yet entertaining central idea to satisfy both genre fans and the lay cinema audience who pay good money to see cheap, blood ridden nonsense, and whilst the final project may not be anything particularly original or memorable, Ready or Not is a more than functional, thoroughly enjoyable big budget splatter horror with a great central performance from the film's leading lady.  

Whilst the movie's supporting trailer pretty much gives away a huge majority of the central plot, Ready or Not follows Samara Weaving (Three Billboards), niece of Hugo Weaving of The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix fame, as Grace, whose marriage to Mark O'Brien's (Bad Times at the El Royale) Alex Le Domas brings her closer to the ridiculously wealthy Le Domas empire, whose generations-long tradition of the new family member being forced to play a particular game at midnight leads her to engage in a fight for survival within the confines of their stately home. Cue stupendously silly levels of overripe violence and more forced comedic punch lines than you would might expect, Ready or Not is a strange blend of Escape Room, The Cabin in the Woods and Adam Wingard's criminally underrated, You're Next, and whilst sometimes the comedic elements do indeed topple the slasher inflicted side of the piece, Weaving's dedicated performance as a newly crowned scream queen allows you to enjoy the crazy path her character walks, even if it is incredibly cliched and wholly unsurprising. For a thoroughly entertaining Friday night slice of horror nonsense, Ready or Not goes down nicely with a pizza and a pint but is undoubtedly quickly forgettable and not interesting enough to be placed in the same category as the sort of films it clearly evokes.

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: The Sisters Brothers

"Charlie, When You Kill A Man, You End Up With His Father Or His Friends On Your Tail. It Usually Ends Badly..."

Acting as a cinematic vessel for his first work in the English language after the critical success of foreign language gems including Rust and Bone and the 2015 Palme D'or winner, Dheepan, French filmmaker, Jacques Audiard, brings to life the 2011 novel, The Sisters Brothers, by Canadian-born author, Patrick deWitt, for a "revisionist" Western tale which blends True Grit style black comedy with Hostiles levels of realism, one all held together by a simply stellar cast led by the brilliant one-two of Joaquin Phoenix (You Were Never Really Here) and John C. Reilly (Stan and Ollie) as the titular brothers, Charlie and Eli Sisters. Already classified as a box office bomb after making just over a quarter of its' respective budget, Audiard's latest is a prime example of a finely crafted move which deserves to be subject to a wider audience but due to the likes of the awful, Hellboy, among others taking up cinema screens due to their "blockbuster" appeal, The Sisters Brothers is unfortunately not likely to be seen by many at all, a real shame indeed considering how enjoyably dark, comedic and thoroughly engaging Audiard's first foray into the English language is, with an added Jake Gyllenhaal. 

Working from a central narrative which primarily focuses on the blood-bound titular siblings, a pair of very differently minded yet infamous hit-men working under the command of Rutger Hauer's (Blade Runner) ruthless Commodore, Audiard's movie sees the bickering duo attempt to track down the whereabouts of Gyllenhaal's (Nightcrawler) John Morris, a fellow employee of the Commodore and private detective sent to locate Riz Ahmed's (Venom) Hermann Kermit Warm, after he is accused of theft. Whilst the movie does indeed follow particular genre conventions with hard-edged shootouts, campfire musings on the meaning of life and of course, alcohol-laden bar brawls, Audiard is undoubtedly much more interested in his central characters, with each performance wonderfully directed and expertly written, creating individuals rather than templates which make the drama much more emotionally engaging that I would ever have expected. With Phoenix blending that off-kilter comedic edge he has shown in the past in the likes of Inherent Vice with murderous sadism, his reckless ways are balanced by the lighter touch of Reilly, who amidst murdering people for money, comes across as the much more focused and rational of the pair, with certain set pieces in particular so well designed, you immediately recognise both the strengths and weaknesses of each without the need for exposition or clumsy dialogue. With superb supporting performances from Ahmed and Gyllenhaal, The Sisters Brothers is a tale of greed, redemption and brotherhood, and for a film which is being shown exactly nowhere in my local area, ironically Audiard's movie is one of the best of the year so far. 

Overall Score: 8/10

Film Review: Piercing

"The First Step Is To Get Her Tied Up And Gagged. She'll Probably Try To Run..."

Presenting itself as one of the more difficult releases this month to try and seek out amidst flying, glowing superheroes and wide-eared elephants, Nicolas Pesce, director of both The Eyes of My Mother and the upcoming remake of The Grudge, returns for his second big screen feature in the form of Piercing, a scathingly dark adaptation of the 1994 novel of the same name from Ryū Murakami, the Japanese author most famous in the world of cinema for his 1997 novel, Audition, which formed the basis for the unforgettable Takashi Miike directed horror of the same name from 1999. Featuring a joint leading role between Christopher Abbott (First Man) and Mia Wasikowska (Crimson Peak), Piercing sees Abbott take on the role of Reed, a seemingly successful white collar family man with a newborn baby to boot, who after feeling a sudden urge to inflict pain on his ever-crying child with an ice pick, decides to take his murderous impulses elsewhere away from the family home. Cue the introduction of the blonde infused Wasikowska as Jackie, an anxiety ridden but sure footed prostitute who quickly takes up the opportunity for work and makes her way over to the stylish high rise in which Reed awaits for a night with messy consequences. 

Whilst any story stamped with the Murakami name upon it is guaranteed from the offset to get you ready for a narrative which won't exactly be for everyone, let alone mainstream audiences, Pesce's movie at least attempts to startle and amaze in all its' B-movie charm as it works its' way through a splendid eighty minute runtime in which a high proportion of the action is simply Reed and Jackie together in various hotel suites. With strange animated backdrops which look like outtakes from the Anime section in Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 1 and a wicked blend of jet black humour and stomach twisting violence, Piercing is indeed effectively flashy and features an abundance of art-deco inspired style but is also a movie which strangely suffers primarily from being hesitant in its' depiction of exploitation, resulting in a endpoint which doesn't seem to go far enough. Whilst there is no denying that the movie features an underlying and unnerving sensibility as you watch two people of similar strangeness come together, the final credits certainly left me gasping for more of a killer, no pun intended, instinct, but with two superb central performances which manage to effectively balance the gap between comedy and horror, Piercing is good enough but by no means on a par with previous adaptations of Murakami. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: Assassination Nation

"This Is The Story Of How My Town, Salem, Lost It's Mind. Let's Start At The Beginning..."

Written and directed by Sam Levinson, son of Good Morning Vietnam and Rain Man director, Barry Levinson, Assassination Nation acts as the American's third feature after trading in acting for directing but the first to venture onto the big screen with a significantly wider general release. Slapped with a beautifully rare 18 certificate and released within a period of the cinematic year in which Halloween, Overlord and Suspiria have all shown a resurgence in the BBFC classifying movies with the highest rating possible, Levinson's latest is a particularly odd beast, a hybrid of varying subjects with an underlying topical social commentary which sees Odessa Young as the free spirited Lily Colson who along with her group of freely spoken youthful friends become embroiled in a town-wide internet hack which sees every single resident's personal online history leak into the gaze of the public eye, resulting in extraordinarily extravagant and particularly violent consequences. Beginning with a familiar stylish and slightly bizarre aesthetic feel to Harmony Korine's woefully unsatisfactory Spring Breakers in 2013, Levinson's movie traverses through a minefield of themes and genres for two hours worth of storytelling which at times is undoubtedly problematic and troublesome, but crucially, never boring, resulting in audiences guaranteed to leave the auditorium thinking to themselves; "what on earth was that all about?"

With the film using the first half an hour to introduce the primary quartet of femme fatales at the heart of the action, each with their own distinguishable individuality and vices, the coming of age style narrative allows the evolving opening scandals to be seen from the point of view of the youth of the aptly named town of Salem as an unknown hacker forces out both the secrets of both a local politician and teacher. With Levinson's screenplay clearly following on from the likes of Ingrid Goes West and Searching by conveying an on-the-nose comment on the nature and impact of social media, whatever point Levinson chooses to focus on becomes completely lost in an out of control second act in which the audience bears witness to a startling combination of Winding Refn and Dario Argento eye-gouging neon style with elements of The Purge, resulting in an abundance of violence and particularly tough scenes of torture, murder and near attempted rape which for some audiences may be too explicit to cope with. Personally however, the sense of silliness and emphatically ripe shock tactics which unveil themselves heading towards the film's climax never became dull or uninteresting, due in part to some wonderful camera work and blissfully bright cinematography, and whilst there never was a single character in which I cared whether they lived or died due to pretty much every single one being fundamentally unlikeable, Assassination Nation moved along nicely as it offended audiences left, right and centre and concluded in a way which simply made me giggle. Bring on more gory grunge movies!

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: The Happytime Murders

"If Shit Gets Crazy I'm Gonna Go Crazy As Shit..."

Whilst Jim Henson will always be primarily remembered for his work on The Muppets and the subsequent legacy the American's famous puppetry has left on culture across the world, his subsequent work on a wide range of cult classics including the likes of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth has meant the transition into film-making has always been one of great success, one which has revelled in a genre of storytelling which has always catered for the younger viewer in terms of tone and sensibility. With The Happytime Murders however, Henson's takes a turn to the dark side with an overly crude and obnoxiously vile R-rated work of trash which sees the staggeringly woeful talents of Melissa McCarthy (Life of the Party) team up with Bill Barretta's Phil Phillps in order to solve a number of puppet-related murders within a Los Angeles which has learnt to co-exist with puppets and humans alike. Cue awful elongated sexual gags involving crazed imagery and out of control bodily fluids, unnecessary swearing and simply terrible dialogue, Henson's foray into the darkness is a hollow, vacuous and totally despicable work of awfulness. The horror, the horror. 

Whilst the likes of Team America: World Police has shown that puppetry and X-Rated comedy can indeed go hand in hand to very successful ends, Trey Parker's 2004 comedy is The Godfather of modern comedy in comparison to The Happytime Murders, a so-called "film" which seems absolutely thrilled with the fact that puppets have been allowed to say swear words and have demonic-esque sex upon the big screen for an audience who undenaibly deserve more than just immature filth which happens just for the sake of it without any real purpose or justification for its' existence. With McCarthy continuing to baffle and perplex regarding just how such an awful actress seems to continue to get constant work, and even with the likes of Life of the Party and The Boss in her awfully sterile back catalogue, nothing is close to the sheer suicide-inducing rankness of her latest venture in which once again she uses overly rude slapstick to attempt to raise laughs from an audience who in my particular screening were completely silent throughout. On the upside, the one saving grace of The Happytime Murders is that I am not alone in my utter disdain for a movie which deserves the utmost disrespect and derision from everyone who pays money to see it. Complete and utter worthless nonsense that doesn't even deserve to be written about. 

Overall Score: 1/10

Film Review: Game Night

"For The Next Hour You're Not Going To Know What's Real Or What's Fake..."

Part of the ensemble of writers behind the screenplay for Marvel's Spider-Man: Homecoming, film-making duo, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein return to directing with Game Night, a blackly comic mystery popcorn delight based on a script by the relatively unknown figure of Mark Perez, featuring Jason Bateman (The Gift) and Rachel McAdams (Spotlight) as the competitive married couple who are sucked into a night of outrageous antics with their weekly "game night" comrades by Kyle Chandler's (Manchester By The Sea) returning overzealous and annoyingly successful brother figure who promises the players a night of gaming unlike any before it. With laugh out loud gags from beginning to end and a joyous first time viewing in which the audience is pulled left, right and centre in regards to the many twists which come before them, Game Night is an American comedy which ultimately works much more effectively than your average US-based comic farce thanks to a tightly wound script and an ensemble cast who undeniably seem to be having as much fun as the fee paying customers come to observe, and even if the movie may not work as well on repeat viewings after its' concluding payoff, Daley and Goldstein's latest is still a resounding full house. 

With obvious narrative comparisons to David Fincher's 1997 mystery drama The Game, albeit with with a much more comical tone, Game Night manages to succeed in intertwining both the whodunit elements of its' narrative with the sickly black tone of its' sharp humour, with set pieces featuring amateur bullet hole surgery and the attempted deep clean of a blood soaked dog resulting in hysterical fits of giggles as you soak up the sheer absurdity which unfolds throughout a tightly packed 100 minutes runtime. With Bateman and McAdams leading the line of couples entrapped in the film's leading mystery, the chemistry between them is undeniably well measured, and even with my own personal reservations regarding the former's on-screen talents when it comes to comedy, their central relationship is crucial to the more out-there comedy elements which in lesser hands may have indeed folded under the silliness of it all. With Jesse Plemons (Hostiles) stealing the show as the woefully awkward next door neighbour and a fantastically designed post-movie credit sequence, Game Night is if anything, outstanding popcorn fun, and for an American comedy to hold my attention for its' entire runtime, that is a miracle within itself. 

Overall Score: 7/10

Film Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

"You Know, If You Hadn't Stopped Coming To Church, You'd Have A Little More Understanding Of People's Feelings..."

With the likes of In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths on his curriculum vitae, Irish screenwrite Martin McDonagh has become renowned in the entertainment trade for snappy and subversive tales which blend the darker traits of the human spirit with rib-tickling comedic undertones, and his return this week with the hotly anticipated jet-black drama, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is an interesting example of a movie which has both equal measures of excellence and fundamental, unforgivable sin. Primarily following Frances McDormand (Fargo, Hail, Caesar!) as the grieving, unpredictable and potty mouthed Mildred Hayes, who in her attempt to call out the workings of the local police force after her daughter's violent death instinctively causes anguish within the community with the implementation of the titular billboards, McDonagh's latest carries all the traits and features you would expect when glancing over the director's previous endeavours on film, but with primary characters within the narrative which ease on the side of utmost vulgarity and gaping plot inconsistencies which become too jarring to ignore, Billboards is a movie which is the epitome of a picture where the whole is lesser than the sum of its' parts. Whilst performances all around are seemingly note perfect, with obvious plaudits directed to McDormand's fiery justice seeker and Sam Rockwell's idiotic, racist and utterly despicable local law enforcer, Officer Dickson, the real heart and centre of the piece is undeniably Woody Harrelson's Sheriff Bill Willoughby, whose key involvement in the direction of the narrative is the only true character where emotional investment and engagement is truly viable. 

Whilst the character of Hayes has a self defined purpose due to the tragic loss of her daughter, her penchant for unwarranted violence and vulgar sensibility highlights the key flaw in a script which not only is tonally wild, but isn't comedic or sharp enough to come across anything other than played with a straight face, and for a movie which tackles poorly a wide range of issues ranging from rape to institutionalised racism, McDonagh's script is one of the most nihilistic portrayals of the human race presented on screen in recent memory. With the comedic elements completely absent therefore, the continued use of petulant swearing and offensive set pieces do ultimately lead to extensive nitpicking in terms of plot inconsistencies, with the most obvious being a complete lack of any realist sense of consequence for any of the major players within the piece, with people being violently attacked in front of gazing witnesses, children being assaulted and police stations being burnt to the ground, with the characters at fault then seemingly left without any sense of punishment, and for a movie whose primary basis is Hayes' search for justice, the feel of the movie just seems terribly conflicted and contradicted. Finally, we get to the character of Rockwell's Officer Dickson, whose revolting, old-fashioned sensibilities and racist, sexist and bigoted views are seemingly forgotten over the course of the movie's runtime, with McDonagh handing the character over to the audience as a sort of redemptive figure of hope which I completely and utterly rejected, and whilst Rockwell's performance is undeniably brilliant, his respective character isn't and whilst Billboards is indeed brilliantly made and is helmed by a flashy pace which zips along nicely, the key message and feel of the movie ultimately left me with a nasty taste in my mouth, and for a film to successfully manage that, McDonagh's latest is a film I can admire but ultimately cannot bring myself to like. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: Suburbicon

"These Animals Took Everything From Us..."

Forged around a screenplay devised by the talented minds of Joel and Ethan Coen, who for less aware cinephiles like myself have previous writing and directorial credits on films including Fargo, The Big Lebowski and No Country for Old Men, Suburbicon, the latest directorial release from George Clooney, on paper, is the type of all star release which almost seems too big to fail, with the likes of Matt Damon, Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac all arriving to the heed of Mr. Clooney's wishes, and whilst Clooney's directorial career hasn't exactly matched the worldwide success of his acting back catalogue, Suburbicon has without doubt all the right ingredients to allow the American to finally earn credence as a director in his own right. With the off-kilter zaniness and black comedic ripeness of the Coen's writings evident throughout and some committed performances from the film's leads, Clooney's latest is a mixed bag of a movie, one which channels previous Coen scripts to an almost uncanny degree but more interestingly, a movie which suffers from a dwindling sense of having too much to say without ever having any real sense of substance or depth to pull it off. 

Set in the heart of the titular, fictional white-picket fenced, idyllic neighbourhood of Suburbicon, Clooney's movie focuses on the Fargo-esque narrative of Matt Damon's Gardner Lodge and the events surrounding him regarding the death of his wife, his suspicious son and the presence of his dead wife's twin sister, Julianne Moore's Margaret. Pulling on notions which lightly touch on themes of racism, class wars and the American dream, Clooney's movie is almost an idiot's guide to the workings of the Coen brothers, utilising the murderous, black hole comedy of their best work but primarily evoking Fargo and its' brilliant television spin-off series, and whilst there are interesting ideas at work within the movie, the handling of the transition from paper to screen seems to have been somewhat lost in translation, with the movie not really sure whether it wants to focus on societal commentary or a straight forward shocker comedy, resulting in a jarring collection of scenes which don't entirely work, primarily a plot thread regarding a racist coo after the all-white population of the area is threatened by the arrival of an African-American family. With that in mind, when the movie does focus on the underlying narrative of betrayal and murder and the interactions between Damon, Moore, Jupe and the drastically underused Oscar Isaac, Suburbicon is enjoyable, but for a movie with this many superstars, Clooney's movie is the type where much more should have been expected. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: The Ritual

"We Should Have Gone To Vegas..."

Based upon British author Adam Nevill's novel of the same name, the Andy Serkis produced The Ritual might go unnoticed within your respective multiplex this week amidst snow-obsessed serial killers and the latest big-screen Lego animation, and whilst black comedy horror is sometimes hard to get spot on, the likes of Dog Soldiers and Shaun of the Dead prove that when done effectively, such a genre is hard to top in terms of entertainment value, and whilst The Ritual isn't exactly a movie rooted with jaw-dropping levels of originality, director David Bruckner has executed a movie which does manage to tick the entertainment box rather extravagantly, and with a central four man show including the likes of Rafe Spall at the heart of the action, Bruckner's latest is a movie bursting with cine-literate genre threads and snigger-inducing, quip-laden dialogue which helps twists the narrative through both horror and comedy ridiculously smoothly through a beautifully harmless ninety minute B-movie feast.

Evoking a wide range of classic horror releases, The Ritual nods its' twisted head primarily through a Blair Witch style setting into the Pagan influences of Anthony Shaffer's The Wicker Man and through once again into the creature feature elements of The Descent, and whilst it was entertaining to mentally jot down the movies imbedded within the film's narrative, Bruckner's movie does hold enough strength to be classed as a movie on its' own right, particularly with the four key characters at the heart of the movie each having their own individual characteristics to be much more than just horror movie cannon fodder. With director David Bruckner having past experience in low-key horror releases before, including the "Amateur Night" segment of the highly enjoyable horror anthology, V/H/S, The Ritual does manage its' horror elements incredibly well, particularly in the first two-thirds of the movie when the film's leading threat is seeped in ambiguity, and whilst the final act is incredibly ludicrous and ultimately predictable, The Ritual is a highly entertaining piece of popcorn horror cinema which revels in the chance to not take itself seriously whatsoever. 

Overall Score: 7/10

Film Review: The Nice Guys

"You're The World's Worst Detective..."

Before venturing into the world of Marvel with Iron Man 3, Shane Black was perhaps best known for writing and directing Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the neo-noir black comedy starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Val Kilmer, a film in which inevitably draws parallels to Black's latest, The Nice Guys, a film of unquestionable similarity in both tone and set-up, albeit starring the one-two of Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling and set slap bang in the late 1970's instead. After the sudden death of adult film star Misty Mountains, private detective Holland March (Gosling) is hired by the deceased's aunt to discover whether or not she is actually alive after seeing her days after her supposed death. Coincidentally, March is quickly intimidated by enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe) who has been hired to prevent his search for Amelia, a suspect in the murder of Misty Mountains, and is told to leave her alone and end his quest for answers. After a quick-fire turn of events however, Healy convinces March to join forces in order to discover the seedy doings of the Los Angeles porn industry and discover the reasons behind the growing number of deaths that seem to be happening around them. 

Part Chinatown, part Lethal Weapon, The Nice Guys gives everything you expect from a picture helmed by the dark comedic mind of Shane Black, with laughs galore throughout the film's more than satisfactory runtime and a pitch black violent streak so reluctantly hilarious, you'll walk out the cinema wondering whether you should have laughed or not. The answer? Of course you should, with the one-two success pairing of Crowe and Gosling being the best on-screen duo in recent memory if being, at times, bettered by the remarkable talents of young Angourie Rice as Holland's daughter, Holly, who is presented as the real brains of the family and the one with the real talent when it comes to investigative pastimes. A long way away from the likes of his time with Marvel, Shane Black's The Nice Guys is a riveting success, one that will leave you with a embarrassingly wide grin for days, the hallmark of an effective comedy if ever there was one. 

Overall Score: 8/10

Film Review: Housebound

Ghost-Trusters

The fundamental problem of producing a really good horror/comedy movie is attempting to abide by those two particular elements and produce enough of each to satisfy audiences prone to one and/or both throughout its' particular runtime. Take a classic example such as Scream for instance, one of the more popular black comedies that attempted and succeeded in producing a movie that poked fun at the cliches of the horror movie industry whilst having genuine horrific moments alongside it, due in part to the creative genius of one Wes Craven. Although in 2015 the horror movie genre has had some rather forgettable additions to it (It Follows, The Woman in Black 2 for example), the newest entry in the form of Gerard Johnstone's Housebound, is most definitely the best of the year so far, with it being one of those rare cases in which the mix of the comedic and the horrific go hand in hand in a rather harmonious fashion.   

When Kylie (Morgana O'Reilly) is sentenced to eight months house arrest with her mother and step-father after a robbery attempt gone wrong, she starts to notice strange occurrences throughout the house, ranging from missing food to murderous, rampaging teddy bears all the whilst being unable to escape due to an electronic tag that has been fitted on her as part of her sentence. Are these strange occurrence due in part to a ghostly spirit residing in the house or is it simply a case of Kylie losing her mind due to her newly found restricted freedom? Housebound follows in the footsteps of last years' The Babadook by not only being another success story from the Oceanic region, but by being a genuinely intelligent, spooky, and ultimately engaging horror film which although covers similar territory in regards to the tale of a haunted house, attempts to break the mould of all its' recent familiars (Insidious Chapter Three for example) by adding in an effective element of comedy to the floor, something of which I think worked throughout and made the film stand out in the category of horror films released so far this year. 

The final act of Housebound in which we witness the true horrors behind the house's strange occurrences was incredibly reminiscent of the recent horror marvel Your'e Next, particularly in one set piece where the latter's "blender scene" gets put to shame with one of the most goriest, if glorious, on-screen deaths I have seen in a long time which although was most definitely not for the faint hearted, seemingly continued to heavily reside on the black-comedy element which made it all more enjoyable, resulting in an simultaneous combination of both shock and sniggers. Overall, Housebound may resort to the age-old cliches of the tale of the haunted house, but it does it with confidence, comedy and style, making it one of this years' stand out performers in the genre of horror movies. 

Overall Score: 8/10

Film Review: Wild Tales

A Dish Best Served Cold

Over the past few years there have been a fair few additions to the genre of anthology movies, with V/H/S and The ABC's of Death both being examples of films that have been admirable but have ultimately fallen rather flat in the wider context of horror movies, particularly the latter, with ABC's being painful (not in a good way) in some places to sit through. What a genuine surprise it was then to see that one of the nominated films for "Best Foreign Language Film" at this year's Oscars was in fact an anthology movie, showcasing six segments based around the theme of revenge. Sounds awesome doesn't it? And boy, Wild Tales really is. 

With the tragic events of Germanwings happening over the past week or so, the uncanny nature of the first segment within the film was inevitably going to make headlines in the UK this week, yet this particular slice of strangeness shouldn't put you off, with the film being released in countries across the globe since last summer anyhow, as well as it being being bloody brilliant from start to finish. Black comedy is fundamentally hard to perfect within cinema, but Wild Tales has barrels-full during its' two-hour runtime, with scenes that are tense, violent, and completely bonkers, of which, encapsulated me entirely, something of which other anthology movies have failed to succeed at.   

Wild Tales includes stories that will make you think twice about who you should piss off, who you should trust, and, most importantly, who you should marry. It's comical take on the age-old theme of revenge is hilarious, if dark, making it one of the most interesting, yet enjoyable, films of the year so far. Muy Buena.

Overall Score: 9/10