The Lost City – Film Review

Posted on April 13, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Directors: Adam Nee and Aaron Nee

Writers: Oren Uziel, Dana Fox, Adam Nee, and Aaron Nee

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Brad Pitt

Rating: ★★★★

The Lost City is an adventure comedy starring Sandra Bullock as Loretta Sage, a romance novelist who ends up on an adventure straight out of one her novels, along with her cover model Alan, played by Channing Tatum. It’s a fantastic laugh out loud comedy and a really great time from start to finish.

After the death of her husband, Loretta Sage is struggling to write her new novel. With a book tour looming she rushes the book and reluctantly attends the first event, only to be upstaged by Alan who models on the cover of her books. After leaving the event Loretta is kidnapped by Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), an eccentric billionaire who’s searching for long lost treasure and thinks that Loretta may be able to help with his search.

This film is just pure entertainment, it’s very funny and has you hooked straight away. Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum are absolutely brilliant together, bouncing off each over and never missing a beat. Loretta is still grieving for her husband and has no patience for Alan, while he has a crush on her and instantly jumps to action to save her from the kidnapping. It’s no surprise that over the course of the journey they end up growing closer.

The actual kidnapping and rescue happens very quickly. Fairfax kidnaps Loretta with lavish style and gives her a parchment to translate that will lead directly to the treasure. Alan and Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt) break into the camp and rescue Loretta and the rest of the film is a cat and mouse game through the jungle as Fairfax chases Loretta to get the parchment back and find the treasure. Speaking of Brad Pitt, as you’d expect if you’ve seen the trailer, he’s the funniest thing about this film. He’s hilarious and brilliant in every scene. Daniel Radcliffe is also great, as the villain of the story. He’s a textbook evil genius and is absolutely brilliant.

The story is pretty much what you’d expect, with very little surprises and to be honest a little forgettable once it’s all over. It’s still a well told story and doesn’t feel too long or outstay its welcome at all. The characters are everything to this film, and thankfully they are all great and leave an impression. The main characters are simply brilliant and there are also some great side characters, which won’t be spoiled here, who make some great running jokes.

The Lost City is a great film. With a great cast, and so many funny moments, it’s an absolute joy to watch and not one to be missed.

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House (1977) – Film Review

Posted on April 12, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi

Writer: Chiho Katsura

Starring: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Ai Matubara, Kumiko Oba, Mieko Sato, Eriko Tanaka, Masayo Miyako, and Yōko Minamida

Rating: ★★★★

The 1977 Japanese film House is a strange and bizarre horror comedy that takes you completely out of reality with both laughter and unsettling moments. Angel (or Gorgeous depending on which translation you’re watching) is played by Kimiko Ikegami. After finding out that her widowed father is in a relationship with a new woman, Angel seeks out her aunt, and invites her school friends to spend some time in her aunt’s house. They travel together, leaving the bustling city and find a remote house, that’s filled with secrets and ghosts they weren’t expecting.

The film is the debut from Nobuhiko Obayashi, who had previously made a couple of short films. He came up with an idea for a film, with ideas from his daughter, and then Chiho Katsura turned that into a script. It took two years from the script being finished for the film to start production, as while Toho greenlit the script, no one wanted to direct it, thinking it would end their careers. Nobuhiko Obayashi eventually was given the okay to direct it himself, after promoting the film for the entire two years. He uses everything to make this film as unique and as startling as possible, from quick cuts, strange angels, animation, and even a scene that’s shot like a silent film with text cards, that create the bizarre world the story is set in.

At first, it seems like a family comedy, with laugh out loud slapstick moments, such a teacher falling down some stairs into a bucket. It keeps this tone up throughout, even when things start to get really weird, with severed heads, pianos that bite, and then the towards the film everything goes completely over the edge, to the point that it becomes unsettling. Everything shifts and the film turns into a full-on horror film. It works perfectly. Even though the film isn’t exactly scary, it’s unsettling enough that you start to feel it in your stomach. There’s an almost dreamlike quality to everything, and you’re never sure what’s going to happen next.

Visually the film is simply stunning. It may be a little dated, almost five decades on, but it still looks great and is more than entertaining to watch. At first, when the film is all playful, it’s like you’re watching a stage play. The sets are clearly fake, with painted backgrounds, and it adds to the dreamlike feeling the film creates. The flairs of animation, and primitive special effects are incredibly charming. It’s hard not to watch this with a smile on your face, at least until it starts to become nightmare fuel.

House was not well received when it was first released in Japan. Since then, it’s grown a cult following worldwide and it truly deserves it. It’s a lot of fun to watch, and if you click with it, then it’s something that you will return to over and over.

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Other People – Film Review

Posted on April 11, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Chris Kelly

Writer: Chris Kelly

Starring: Jesse Plemons, Molly Shannon, Bradley Whitford, Maude Apatow, Madisen Beaty, John Early, Zach Woods, Josie Totah, June Squibb

Rating: ★★★½

Chris Kelly’s first feature film is the semi-autobiographical Other People. It stars Jesse Plemons as David, a struggling writer who moves back home to look after his mother Joanne (Molly Shannon), who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The film takes place over the last year of Joanne’s life. It starts with her death, and her family surrounding her on her bed. Then time moves back to the previous Christmas, showing David’s arrival at home. Time is spent in each month, leading up to Joanne’s passing. Throughout the year David is trying to convince his mother that he’s doing okay with his life, that he has chances in his career and that he’s still together with his boyfriend, even though they’ve broken up.

Molly Shannon is absolutely brilliant as Joanne, giving a vulnerable and powerful performance. She’s the heart and soul of the film and pretty much carries everything. The sequence of her in the hospital, which you only see through the slightly opened door, is heart-breaking and genuinely hard to watch. Jesse Plemons, as always, gives a good performance as well, capturing the idea of feeling lost in your late twenties.

The film is a dark comedy, and there are some funny moments in the film, but most of it is twinged with the sadness of what you know is coming. Every laugh and joke feels diluted and that fits the tone of the film perfectly. You can feel that this is a personal project and you can feel the emotion come through.

As the film covers a full year in around a hundred minutes, there are moments where it feels like the pacing is rushed a little, especially towards the end. It does feel like there are pieces missing and it would have been nicer for the plot to slow down just a little to really let everything sink in.

Other People is a great film, with excellent performances and a true story that resonates. It’s funny and sad, and really worth watching.  

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The Eyes of Tammy Faye – Film Review

Posted on April 10, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Michael Showalter

Writer: Abe Sylvia

Starring: Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, and Vincent D’Onofrio

Rating: ★★★1/2

The Eyes of Tammy Faye is based on the documentary of the same name and tells the true story of Tammy Faye (Jessica Chastain) who was an American evangelist. The film follows her life from childhood until the mid-1990s, focusing mostly on the period that she was in a relationship with Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield). The couple created The PTL Club, which was their biggest successful, and led to their downfall amongst big scandals.

Starting this film as someone who wasn’t even born when The PTL Club was at its height, not having heard of either Tammy Faye or Jim Bakker, this film still works. It tells an interesting story and does a good job at summarising who Tammy Faye was, as well as her story. It makes you feel like you know her, understand why she had a following, and genuinely feel for her throughout her journey.

Jessica Chastain delivers an incredible performance as Tammy, which won her a well-deserved Oscar. Her performance manages to show a complex person, and show the many sides of her. You don’t at any point, just feel sorry for her for what’s happened, or anger at how she and her husband frauded people for their own gain. There’s more layers to it than that, and her performance captures the complexity and is completely captivating the whole time. Andrew Garfield also brings his best as Jim Bakker, and the pair together are excellent. Watching their relationship blossom, and crumble is fascinating to watch. The make-up on both of the leads is great, and seeing pictures of the real Tammy Faye side-by-side as the credits starts to roll really show how great of a job they did.

As the film is only two hours long, and covers around three decades of events, it does feel like a lot of things are skipped over. Pretty much all of the 1970s is over in a blink of the eyes, and the main focus on the film is their rise in the mid 60s, followed by their eventual decline in the 80s. It manages to hit the main points, but you still feel like there’s something missing. The film does a good job of keeping you in the loop, but at points things change and you just have to go along with it. Perhaps a mini-series with more time for each era would have been better, or maybe that would have dragged it out too much.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye is a pretty great biopic. Even if you don’t know anything about its subjects, like I don’t, it still completely transfixes you on the screen. It’s very entertaining and fascinating to watch.

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All the Old Knives – Film Review

Posted on April 9, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Janus Metz Pedersen

Writer: Olen Steinbauer

Starring: Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton, Laurence Fishburne, and Jonathan Pryce

Rating: ★★

All the Old Knives is a thriller, that’s based on the book of the same name by Olen Steinbauer, who also wrote the screenplay. It’s a dialogue heavy spy story, that has some great twists, but is let down by a messy opening and some slow pacing.

Henry (Chris Pine) is a CIA agent who is tasked with interviewing Celia (Thandiwe Newton) about a terrorist hijacking of Turkish Airlines 127 eight years prior. There’s reason to believe that a leak from within the agency that caused the hijacking to end tragically. Henry and Celia worked together at the time of the incident and were also romantically involved. They also haven’t seen each other since it happened.

The film starts of incredibly messy with time jumps and it takes a little while to actually settle down and start to make sense. Once it does it’s a standard thriller, with Celia and Henry going over the events of what happened. To fully investigate Henry also interviews Bill (Jonathan Pryce), who has warned Celia about Henry before he arrives. There’s a lot of double crossing and layers to what’s going on and you never feel like you’re completely in the know, until the end with a great twist as everything is revealed.

Before you get to that though, there’s the glaringly obvious strangeness of Henry investigating the hijacking and having to interview his ex. It seems really bizarre that he’s allowed to do this, just from the fact that he is potentially the leak as pointed out by Celia at one point in the interview. There is some events that happen later in the film that kind of make this make sense, but it’s still a stretch in believability.

The film does feel like it drags on a little too long. Running at a little over ninety minutes, the pace is very slow and you do start to drift off at points. It’s an interesting story and you do want to know what happens, but you do feel its length and no matter how great the ending is, it doesn’t make up for how long it takes to get there.

All the Old Knives isn’t great, but it’s not terrible. Some good performances from the central characters and a good ending, but that’s about it.

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