Firestarter – Film Review

Posted on May 13, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Keith Thomas

Writer: Scott Teems

Starring: Zac Efron, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon, Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley, Michael Greyeyes, Gloria Reuben

Rating: ★★

The new Firestarter film is the latest in a long line of adaptations of Stephen King’s work that just doesn’t live up to expectations. It’s a real shame that the story hasn’t gotten the film it deserves, especially when you can see the elements of a really good King story on screen here, instead it’s a poorly written and acted mess that feels very rushed.

Charlene McGee (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) has a secret ability where she is able to create fire in her surroundings, which she is unable to control. While growing up in hiding with her parents Andrew (Zac Efron) and Victoria (Sydney Lemmon), Charlene has to force her abilities deep down without ever learning how to control them. After an incident in school, where a teacher witnesses her power, the McGee family have to go on the run.

You can tell while watching this film that the book is better. Like a lot of King’s novels, it just doesn’t fit into a ninety-minute film. There are so many interesting moments that feel rushed and diluted just to move the plot on as quickly as possible. It’s such a shame that more time wasn’t given to the story to let it be interesting and because of that you’re never fully invested. the characters don’t feel like real people with really awful dialogue that’s so clunky. There’s a big development moment for Charlene when she uses her powers reactionary to a cat attacking her, that comes across like something out of a parody and is a lot funnier than it should be. To top it all off, the film somehow feels a lot longer than ninety minutes, even with its quick pace. Any excitement burns out quickly.

Everything feels one-dimensional with some really poor performances, even from Zac Efron, who is normally pretty good. The characters aren’t developed at all and you don’t really get a sense of who they are. At the same time there is the members of the McGee family don’t feel like a family at all, it just feels forced. The film really assumes you’re going to care about them, just because they are the ‘good guys’. Even the grey area in their characters isn’t explored in any meaningful way, it’s just there to give a feeling of depth when there isn’t any.

The best thing about the film is the score from John Carpenter. It feels like the score from one of his classic horrors, with a retro synth vibe to it. It deserves to be attached to a lot better film, but a new John Carpenter score is never a bad thing (it’ll probably become background noise to future writing projects for me at least). Overall Firestarter feels like a cash-grab, something put out there only because it’s based on a King book. A real shame. Maybe one day we will get an adaptation that does the book justice.   

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Girlfriend’s Day – Film Review

Posted on May 12, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Michael Stephenson

Writers: Bob Odenkirk, Philip Zlotorynski, Eric Von Hoffman

Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Amber Tamblyn, Rich Sommer, Natasha Lyonne, Toby Huss, Andy Richter, Stacy Keach

Rating: ★★½

Girlfriend’s Day is a wacky comedy about the seedy underbelly of the sentimental world of greeting cards. Bob Odenkirk co-writes and stars as Ray Wentworth, a greeting cards writer who has lost the knack for writing romance cards after his divorce. He’s let go by his company and ends up spending most of his time watching trash TV and looking after his landlord’s nephew in exchange for rent. When the governor declares a new holiday, Girlfriend’s Day, as well as a contest to write the best card for the occasion, Ray tries to rekindle the spark for writing he once had, while also finding out there’s a darker side to his occupation.

Everything about this film is slightly bizarre and offbeat. It starts with David Lynch as a narrator telling you about the industry of greetings cards, and any film that features Lynch is worth watching. It sets the scene perfectly for the quirky world the film inhabits, filled with people taking card writing seriously, seeing it as better than novel writing, a bar where all the card writers hang out, and an almost mobster like approach behind the scenes with the rival companies at the centre of the story.

That quirky energy is kept up really well for the first act, showing Ray as someone down on his luck and the strangeness of everything around him. Before he’s fired, Ray presents some strange ideas to his boss, trying to show that he still has the talent. There’s some good jokes and it’s genuinely fun. But even with the film only being an hour and ten minutes, it runs out of steam really quickly. It feels way too long, and starts to become a bit of a slog to get through. The opening feels like something out of an episode of Pushing Daisies, but it just can’t keep that up for the whole run time.

Bob Odenkirk is still great in the main role, instantly likable as he is in everything he’s in. There’s some interesting cameos and appearances from other people, a lot of people that you’ve seen around in other things, but Odenkirk is the main character and the most memorable of the lot. Later in the film, when it gets a bit more formulaic, there’s still some good moments and a satisfying ending.

Girlfriend’s Day is okay, but it’s nothing special, but it’s entertaining enough to watch. As it’s a Netflix original, it’s probably not worth putting to the top of your watchlist.

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Everything Everywhere All at Once – Film Review

Posted on May 11, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

Writers: Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr, James Hone, Jamie Lee Curtis

Rating: ★★★★★

It seems like multiverses are definitely in right now, and Everything Everywhere All at Once may be the best version of it yet. Co-directors/writers Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (also known together as ‘Daniels’) have thrown absolutely everything at their latest film. It’s completely absurd in the best way possible, filled with pure imagination with a scattering of dark themes.

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) and her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) own a laundromat and are currently being audited by the IRS. When they are at a meeting with Deirdre Beaubeirdra (Jamie Lee Curtis), the agent dealing with their audit, Evelyn discovers that there are multiple universes and there’s a way to access the consciousness of herself from another universe and tap into their strengths. It’s up to her to save the multiverse from certain doom.

That pretty much sums up the first twenty or so minutes of the film, and you don’t need to know anything more than that. It’s best to go into to this knowing as little as possible because you really don’t want anything spoiling. It’s a bizarre and mad film and it’s best for the stranger things to be left as a surprise. It’s heartfelt and surprisingly personal for a film about the multiverse. The script is eccentric and filled with hilarious moments you can’t quite believe are actually happening (there was someone who shouted, ‘this is disgusting’ and left about halfway through, and they’re lucky they didn’t wait a few more scenes if that was their limit).

Everyone is perfectly cast and does a great job. Michelle Yeoh is absolutely fantastic, as always, and gives a memorable performance as the many different Evelyns. Ke Huy Quan, who’s recently stepped back into acting after almost twenty years away, is completely charming as Waymond, a very optimistic and wacky character. Throughout the film you see many different versions of them both, and they work so well together all the way through with great chemistry showing with every version. Their daughter, Joy, is played by Stephanie Hsu and is also exceptional in the role.  

This film is very funny, definitely the funniest film of the year so far, with so many quirky and offbeat jokes that just hit the mark every time. Likewise, the action and choreography are stunning. Every scene is exciting and entertaining and there’s not a slow moment in it’s over two hour run time. Even at the beginning when Evelyn is trying to keep on top of a hectic schedule the film is well shot, it makes you feel the same pressures that she’s feeling and it’s overwhelming. Then when the action starts it’s constantly stylish and feels completely different to anything that’s come before.  

Coming out so close to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (at least in the UK), it really shows you how tame the MCU was with the multiverse. Here it is presented as an endless number of bizarre alternatives from sausage fingers to chefs controlled by racoons, and then the way to access the other paths on the multiverse is even stranger. Eating lip balm or used gum being just two of the ways that the characters tap into the powers of other versions of themselves. It’s completely out there but everything is as brilliant as it is silly. Even when the film starts to deal with some heavy themes like existentialism and depression it does it with a smile, or more accurately with googly eyes on a sentient rock.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a magical film that blends great action, comedy, and a meaningful message together to create something truly special. There is nothing else quite like it and it’s not a stretch to say that this will be long regarded one of the best films of 2022. If you get the chance, go see it, you won’t regret it.  

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Goodbye, Eri – Manga Review

Posted on May 10, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Tatsuki Fujimoto, the creator of Chainsaw Man, is back with a 200 page one-shot called Goodbye, Eri. The story follows Yuta Ito who is given a smartphone for his twelfth birthday with the request that he films his mother as much as possible, as she’s dying. He captures moments of her in every situation leading up to her final moments, where despite her wishes, Yuta can’t film it and runs away. After her death he turns the footage into a film to show at a school festival, ending with him running away as the hospital explodes in the background.

Almost everyone in the school mocks Yuta, with other students and even a teacher telling him that he’s disrespectful towards his mother. There’s no thought to how he is dealing with his grief and the mocking pushes him to want to kill himself. As he’s about to jump from the hospital roof another student, Eri, stops him and explains that she really enjoyed the film. Eri and Yuta become close friends and start working on a new film to show at the next festival to get revenge on the mocking of the first one.

Goodbye, Eri is a very quick read. The art is great and easy to follow, while also feeling unique with Tatsuki Fujimoto’s style shining through. The story itself if emotional and leaves an impact, even though it’s relatively short compared to a lot of manga. It’s something that will sit with you after you finish it and creep back into your mind time and time again throughout the days after you’ve finished it. It feels very personal and authentic, capturing the grief that Yuta is feeling while also distorting it through the films he makes.

Through his films Yuta is able to filter his memories to only remember what he wants to about his mother and his own past. He’s dealing with his grief in his own way and filters the world around him through his smartphone. Most of the manga is drawn from the perspective of what the camera picks up, with everything else forgotten. We only get to see what Yuta films and there’s a sense that there’s more to the story than what we’re seeing. It feels very heartfelt, raw, and poignant.

Going into spoiler territory, so be warned and don’t read further if you don’t want anything given away, this is a manga that hits you with emotional gut punch after emotional gut punch. There are a few curveball moments in the story, with each one hitting hard. The film that Yuta made about his mother is very edited only showing the positive sides of her. She initially wanted him to film her recovery from the illness to make a documentary before things turned to the worse. Yuta’s father filmed her death in place of Yuta and when he shows Yuta the clip, it’s heart-breaking to read.

Goodbye, Eri is an excellent manga. It’s a very short read, with only 200 pages and a lot of that is light on dialogue. It can be read in about half an hour. Whether you’re a manga veteran or never picked up a volume before, this is really worth checking out. It’s very accessible and emotional. Tatsuki Fujimoto is writing great story after great story and this certainly eases the wait for the second part of Chainsaw Man.

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The Sadness – Film Review

Posted on May 9, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Rob Jabbaz

Writer: Rob Jabbaz

Starring: Berant Zhu, Regina Lei, Tzu-Chiang Wang

Rating: ★★★★

After being released in Taiwan last January and then appearing at international film festivals throughout 2021, Rob Jabbaz’s film The Sadness is now getting released on Shudder. The film is an all-out gore fest that doesn’t hold anything back and is set during a deadly pandemic where infected people lose all inhibitions and turn into essentially fast and violent zombies.

Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina Lei) start their day as they normally would, with Jim dropping Kat off at the local train station. On his way back home, Jim goes to a local café, only to see one of the infected people attack the staff, he goes home to discover that the infection is widespread and heads out to find Kat, who at the same time is attacked on the train.

This film is definitely not going to be for everyone. Even some of the most dedicated of horror fans are going to wince and look away at certain points in this film. The gore is on another level. It’s bloody and brutal. Rob Jabbaz pushes everything to the extreme with a film that is very reminiscent of Gath Ennis’s comic series Crossed. Like the comic, every is made that much more horrific knowing that these are just infected people, there’s nothing other worldly or supernatural happening. To give just a little detail without spoiling the most gruesome moments, the film gruesomely shows ripping people’s faces off after pouring hot oil on them, poking out eyes with umbrellas, and a mass stabbing on the train. It also gets a lot worse than that at points, so probably best not to watch this one while eating.  The effects are simply fantastic and very convincing all the way through making everything that much more stomach churning.  

The first ten minutes of this film are stunning. It feels like a slow start, with small hints at what’s going to happen, and then without any warning it ramps everything up with bloody violence and doesn’t really let up until the last twenty minutes or so when the film starts to feel a little too long. The ending is good, but no where near as energetic as the opening. Even though the film focuses on Jim and Kat right from the start, it’s not a film that spends a lot of time building characters. You don’t really know them at all, but it’s still tense as they try to survive the outbreak. There’s just as much time spent with some brief social commentary about how the pandemic has been politicised and no one is listening to experts.

The Sadness is a brutal and sadistic film. If you aren’t put off by gore, then this is something for you. The effects are fantastic and the opening act is absolutely stunning, grabbing your attention straight away and you won’t be able to look away, even when you want to.  

The Sadness is available on Shudder from 12th May 2022

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