A Banquet – Film Review

Posted on May 23, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Ruth Paxton

Writer: Justin Bull

Starring: Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander, Ruby Stokes, Lindsay Duncan

Rating: ★★

In A Banquet Sienna Guillory stars as Holly, a recently widowed woman who is raising her two children, Betsey (Jessica Alexander) and Isabelle (Ruby Stokes), while avoiding calls from her overbearing mother, June (Lindsay Duncan). It’s a story about grief and mental illness, that’s big on atmosphere but really struggles to keep your attention.

The film opens with a strong and visceral scene with Holly looking after her ill husband, before he commits suicide. The scene focuses on the mundane of Holly cleaning a chair, while her husband is sitting on the bed coughing up everything. The sounds of the cleaning mixing in with his illness. It’s an uncomfortable and unsettling opening that may make people want to stop watching there and then. It instantly sets up an atmosphere that makes you feel like this is going to be hard hitting, and while the shock of his death works really well, the film does nothing to keep that momentum going.

Throughout the film there are moments that come close to the almost body horror opening, with lots of close ups of food, that really make you not want to eat again. The food horror doesn’t feel completely unhinged to make you really feel scared, it just leaves you a little unsettled. The atmosphere the film creates is really great, it’s just the story behind it doesn’t really match it.

Holly’s eldest daughter, Betsey, goes to a party where some friends trick her, and she walks out into the woods and has an existential crisis. Following that she feels nauseous around food and stops eating and also experiences moments where she can’t control her body. Holly becomes worried about what’s happening to her daughter and is worried that it’s psychological, while Betsey believes she’s become enlightened and no longer needs to eat. The film then walks the line between whether Betsey’s experience is real or in her mind, with visits to doctors and a psychiatric hospital.  

While the visuals and atmosphere created in the film are great, the story is incredibly slow paced. It has you hooked with the first scene, but it then just drags on for another ninety minutes until it’s over with a very underwhelming ending. It’s an interesting premise, but really not entertaining to watch.

A Banquet is available on Shudder today – 23rd May 2022

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Sensor – Manga Review

Posted on May 22, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Sensor from Junji Ito is a horror/mystery manga that tells the story of a journalist, Wataru Tsuchiyado, who spends years trying to find out what happened to Kyoko Byakuya, the sole survivor of a volcano eruption who mysteriously disappeared shortly afterwards. It’s a story that reaches into the past and is wrapped in a mystery that the single volume story only begins to unfold.

It’s really hard to summarise the plot to this manga without either giving things away or make it sound a little all over the place. The plot is a little messy, with a hell of a lot put into the 230ish pages, but it doesn’t feel like it when your reading it. Each of the seven chapters feel almost like short stories that are telling the overarching story and because of that it does feel like some elements aren’t explored fully. The whole manga is only one volume, but there’s definitely enough here for more. There are a lot of questions left unanswered, even if the main plot gets a decent, but a little abrupt, ending.

I found the first couple of chapters of Sensor really hard to get into. Some of the writing felt a little clunky and off, but that could be a translation issue, and the story didn’t feel very focused. Reading Junju Ito’s mini-essay about the story at the end of the book, he does mention that he didn’t have a concrete plan and the chatacters seemed to do what they wanted, and it does kind of feel like that at firs. The first chapter shows Kyoko walking at the base of the volcano, not really knowing why. The second chapter then moves over to the reporter and slowly over the next couple of chapters the story starts to settle in.

By the time I was hooked I was almost half way through, thankfully some of the best bits are in the second half. There’s an entire chapter featuring suicide bugs, little bugs that jump under people’s feet so they’ll stand on them. It’s gruesome and creepy, especially when its revealed what they represent. I think that chapter is the best in terms of horror, although there’s another chapter where the reporter is being stalked through reflections that is also haunting.

The art in this story is simply brilliant. Ito is a master of drawing horror, and has a very twisted imagination. There are moments in Sensor where he holds absolutely nothing back, with some of the strangest things you can imagine. There are so many moments in the story where you’ll stop reading and study the details on the page.

Sensor is definitely worth reading for any horror fan. It’s filled with interesting and strange ideas, and once the story does get going it is good. It is a shame that it feels a little rushed in places, but the creepiness is still there and there’s enough chills to make this a fun read.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed my review, and until next time,

Ashley

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Asadora! Volume 3 – Manga Review

Posted on May 21, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

After reading the first two volumes of Asadora! in one sitting, I was excited to read the third volume of Naoki Urasawa’s latest series. It starts exactly where the second volume ends, with Asa finding the picture of the kaiju that she spotted during the typhoon. This first chapter shows Asa meeting the one who dropped the picture, a trainee biologist, whose mentor was looking for the mysterious Kaiju even before the Typhoon. There meeting is short lived as Asa becomes more focused on a new secret mission that she has to undertake with Kasuga.

Like the first two volumes the main story takes a back seat to some of the more grounded and dramatic elements of the story. There’s an entire sub-plot that’s building about Asa’s friends who want to become singers. One of them has been approached by a talent agency, but they only want her and not the friend. You can tell there’s going to be a rift there. The main action of the story is starting to become more prominent in this volume, but the pieces are still being set into place.

What I really like about Asadora! is that it’s a story about family, and what that actually means and the innocence of childhood. After the typhoon hit, Asa loses most of her family and ends up being looked after Kasuga and a store owner. It’s a makeshift family, and at the same time Asa is holding out hopes that her actual family survived the typhoon.

Overall, volume three isn’t as exciting as the first two which were essentially just setting up the story. With this volume the pace is slowed down and the pieces are being put into place. Naoki Urasawa is a master of writing characters, and it’s because of how great the characters are that makes this such an enjoyable read. Even if the kaiju story is taking a backseat, the historical fiction side of the story is still a brilliant read. I can’t wait to to read more of the series.

Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley

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Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers – Film Review

Posted on May 20, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Akiva Schaffer

Writers: Dan Gregor and Doug Mand

Starring: John Mulaney, Andy Samberg, Will Arnett, Eric Bana, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, J.K. Simmons, KiKi Layne

Rating: ★★★★

The new Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers film is available on Disney Plus and is a real treat for the whole family. It’s a meta-sequel to the original TV series, mixing a wide variety of animation styles as well as live-action. It follows Chip (John Mulaney) and Dale (Andy Samberg) as they investigate the kidnapping of their old co-star Monterey Jack (Eric Bana).

On one hand this film is a fairly standard family film, following a good guys vs bad guys story, with a few twists, and a happy ending. Plot-wise it sticks to the tried and tested formula and does a good job at just being that. What makes this film special is that it goes beyond that with the main characters being actors who appeared in the classic animated show Rescue Rangers in the early 90s and are now washed up. Chip is an insurance salesman, while Dale is trying to recapture his success at conventions and through social media. He’s even had surgery to appear computer generated, compared to Chip who hasn’t changed in the thirty or so years since their heyday. This is a world where the characters of animated films live in the real world as well, and it’s filled with fun.

Following in the footsteps of films like The Lego Movie, which director Akiva Schaffer worked on as a producer and lyricist, Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers is filled with references, throwbacks and most importantly cameos galore. It’s absolutely packed to the brim with characters appearing from other shows and films, and half the fun is spotting characters in the background. Unlike last years Space Jam sequel, this doesn’t feel like a showcase for Disney+, instead Schaffer managed to get permission from everywhere to use their characters, with some of them being main characters.

There’s a great couple of scenes in a convention that Dale appears at, with so many characters appearing that your eyes will be glued to the background to spot more. There are also more than enough great jokes to make you laugh, no matter how old you are. It’s one of those children’s films that has enough in it that adults can enjoy it too. The cast are also fantastic as well, straight from the opening narration from Andy Samberg catching you up on the history of the heroes. Seth Rogen also appears, as several characters, and is completely brilliant.

What would have been a standard family film is made so much better with great meta-humour. Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a lot more fun than you’d expect and really worth watching. If you have a Disney+ subscription it’s a perfect film for the weekend.

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A Perfect Pairing – Film Review

Posted on May 19, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Stuart McDonald

Writers: Hilary Galanoy and Elizabeth Hackett

Starring: Victoria Justice, Adam Demos, Craig Horner

Rating: ★★1/2

In A Perfect Pairing, Victoria Justice stars as Lola, who quits her job at an LA wine company after having her work stolen by a colleague and travels to Australia in hopes to land her first client and jumpstarting her own company. It’s a by-the-numbers rom-com that does everything exactly as you’d expect it to, without any surprises or anything new being brought to the table but is still entertaining and easy watching.

Lola travels to Australia to catch a potential client, the owner of Vaughn’s Family Wine, at her farm while she’s on vacation, but is instantly turned down, as she doesn’t have any clients on her own. In an attempt to win the boss over, Lola agrees to become a volunteer on the farm to try and prove herself over a few weeks. While on holiday she starts to fall for Max (Adam Demos), who helps manage the farm.

Everything about this film is just fine. The characters, plot, setting, acting – all completely fine. It feels like a made-for-tv rom-com, and that’s pretty much what it is. There aren’t any real perils or struggles for the characters, as everything moves nicely and steadily towards the ending. It’s kind the summer version of another Netflix film from last year, A Castle at Christmas, in that it ticks all the boxes for a rom-com, and is funny and enjoyable while you’re watching it, but there’s just no real spark about it.

A Perfect Pairing is the kind of story that you know every ‘twist’ almost as soon as it starts. It’s completely braindead easy watching that’s good for a Friday night after a week at work, but not something you’ll be sharing with co-workers (or probably even remember watching) when Monday morning comes around. Sometimes that’s all you really want to watch.

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