Starring: Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Rhys Ifans, Jake Daviews, Christian Lee, Jonah Lees, Mark Lewis Jones, and Johann Myers
Rating: ★★★★
There’s something completely British about taking a small moment in history, that would otherwise be completely forgotten and turning it into a charming little comedy film. Look at the recent The Duke, Save the Cinema, and Dream Horse, all of which are effortlessly charming, and all based on true stories that are almost so strange you literally couldn’t make it up. The Phantom of the Open is another one of these films, written by Simon Farnaby and directed by Craig Roberts, and telling the story of Maurice Flitcroft.
Mark Rylance stars as Maurice Flitcroft, a crane operator, who faces redundancy and decides to take a shot as the golf tournament The British Open, without any experience or actual knowledge of the game. By selecting the option for professional on the registration form he’s accepted without any questions asked and ends up shooting the worse round in the tournament’s history, leading him to be banned from every club in the country. Nothing stops Flitcroft from following his dreams, with the saying ‘practice is the road to perfection’.
The story and Flitcroft himself is completely largely than life, but it’s a true story, that’s just as unbelievable as it sounds. His attempts to play in the open led to a tournament for bad players in America, as well as inspired books and now this film. It’s a feel-good film that leaves a smile on your face from start to finish. Mark Rylance delivers a phenomenal and nuanced performance, that feels completely authentic and real. Sally Hawkins is also completely excellent as Jean Flitcroft, Maurice’s wife. There is real chemistry between them on screen and their relationship is sweet.
It’s an inspiring story about following your dreams and achieving whatever you put your mind to. It’s a story about not following the herd and doing your own thing and even if you don’t achieve it, at least you can say you tried. There’s some familiar gatekeeping moments where Flitcroft struggles to make his way into the golfing community because he doesn’t have the right shoes or clothes, but through pure persistence he makes sure that it doesn’t stand in his way.
The Phantom of the Open is a charming true. It’s a testament to what you can do if you put your mind to it, full of laugh out loud moments. A truly sweet story that needs to be seen by as many people as possible.
The Phantom of the Open will be in UK cinemas from 18th March
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Love, Life and Goldfish is a beautiful Japanese musical based on the manga Sukutte Goran. It takes the tropes of rom-coms and turns them into something completely magical by turning the mundane in the fantastical.
The story follows Makoto (Matsuya Onoe), a Tokyo banker, who’s career is halted after he confronts a superior and is demoted to a small village in the middle of nowhere. Once he arrives at his new position he is completely determined to be job focused and try to prove his worth, but he can’t help but fall in love with Yoshino (Kanako Momota), and he has to make a choice between work and love.
The film is a quirky and fun musical with offbeat characters, bizarre moments and even an intermission halfway through and a warning for when the film is due to end. It’s an infusion of 9-5 work, which some of the songs are even about, and the simple joys in life. Yoshino runs a goldfish scooping shop, which is a pastime in the village Makoto is demoted to. At first Makoto is resistant towards it, thinking it childish, but also not understanding the joy that his new co-workers find from it, after he learns the tricks and catches his first goldfish everything changes and he starts to understand the differences between the city and the village.
That’s one of the main themes of the film, the difference between the urban and rural lifestyles. Makoto is completely work focused, getting straight to it on his arrival, while Yoshino and the other locals help Makoto understand there are different ways to living. The joy in life in the small things, the scenery, catching goldfish or just being around music. It’s all so vivid and magical to watch and it immediately sucks you in.
It feels like a live-action manga, with all the flairs and flourishes you’d expect and is a pure joy to watch from start to finish. It may follow some typical rom-com tropes, but it’s so fantastical that everything feels fresh and brand new. The story opens with Makoto in a field trying to get to his way when someone driving a goldfish themed truck picks him up. There’s no hesitation for the film getting a little bit strange and showing that its something a little different. It really pays-off.
Unlike some musicals, the songs here are short and sweet. They never outstay their welcome. In fact it’s the opposite where you want the songs to last longer. They’re quirky and unique in how the film takes something so normal, such as Makoto’s day to day banking duties and turn them into something that seems special and fun.
Love, Life and Goldfish is completely magical from start to finish. It instantly hooks you with the strange goldfish truck in the middle of nowhere and with some beautiful visuals and eccentric characters, you’re completely taken away into a much brighter world, and one that you’re in no rush to leave.
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Starring: Amanda Brugel, Jonas Chernick, and Natalie Brown
Rating: ★★★½
Written by Amanda Brugel and Jonas Chernick, who also star in the film, and directed and co-written by Jeremy Lalonde, Ashgrove is set in a world that is in the middle of a pandemic, where the world’s water supply is toxic and killing people. The survivors are limiting their intake of water to avoid water toxic. Jennifer Ashgrove (Amanda Brugel) has the weight of the world on her shoulders, as the world’s top scientist trying to discover a cure. The stress of the job is causing her to have blackouts, and to try and destress to get back on track she takes a weekend away with her husband, Jason (Jonas Chernick). On the weekend away, tensions run high as secrets are revealed and pressures build up.
Jennifer and Jason are wonderfully created characters, that feel incredibly real. Amanda Brugel and Jonas Chernick have both done a great job of writing and bring the characters to life on screen. Throughout the weekend away, arguments arrive that are uncomfortable to watch, and feel very real. They are also joined by two friends, which is where everything comes to ahead. Sammy (Natalie Brown) and Elliot (Shawn Doyle), arrive at the farm to have a meal.
It’s hard to talk about this film without edging a little into spoiler territory. There is a secret that changes everything. Before the secret is revealed there is an overwhelming sense of dread. You know that not everything is being revealed and that secrets are about to come out. The chilling score heightens the tension that’s slowly building. The atmosphere is one of the best things about the film.
The pacing on this film is a little all over the place. It feels like the first hour is really dragged out, then a big twist happens, and everything gets back on track. The twist is perfectly built up throughout the story, with little hints here and there, and works really well. It brings back your engagement completely, and makes you rethink about a lot of the moments you’ve watched already. That’s the best kind of twist.
Ashgrove is a decent drama/thriller. It really excels at creating an unsettling atmosphere and the scenes of arguing are visceral and authentic. It’s a real shame that the film drags at points, but it still manages to keep you hooked as the twist happens.
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Starring: Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Anna Maxwell Martin, Mathew Goode
Rating: ★★★★½
It’s taken a year and a half for The Duke to finally receive a release in the UK, after being shown at Venice Film Festival in 2020. Thanks to covid, the film faced delays and ended up with a new distributor before seeing a general release. It’s finally here and it’s more than worth the wait.
Based on a true story, The Duke tells the story of Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent), a working-class man in his sixties who in the 1960s was arrested for stealing the portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. His mission is to bring about change for the poorer in society, believing that the money spent to keep the portrait in London could have gone to paying for the TV licences of older people who can’t afford it.
The Duke is an incredibly charming and funny film. Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, who plays Kempton’s wife Dorothy Bunton, are absolutely phenomenal with outstanding performances. There is so much chemistry between them and every scene they share the screen together is a real treat. They feel like a real old married couple with bickering, and their different outlooks. Broadbent brings all his usual charisma to the role, making Kempton an instantly likable character. The scenes with him on trial, winning of the courtroom and jury are funny, and actually based on the court transcripts as well.
Visually the film is stunning, as it recreates the smoke-filled skies of the 1960s. It looks authentic and you would completely believe that it was made fifty years ago. There’s also a nice use of what looks like archive footage of London during Kempton’s trip, where Broadbent is spliced into it. There’s that nostalgia inducing grainy texture to everything, and it looks good.
While it is a heart-warming and friendly comedy the film does have some dark undertones to it. Kempton and Dorothy lost their daughter in a bicycle crash and don’t ever talk about it. The incident has driven a wedge between them, with Kempton blaming himself as he bought her the bike. To deal with his grief Kempton has been writing plays and sending them to the BBC, which are returned rejected. Dorothy doesn’t see the point in talking about it, as nothing can be changed. It’s genuinely sad, and elevated further by just hon good Mirren and Broadbent are in the roles. Â
A little spoiler warning, there’s a twist around two-thirds of the way through that you don’t see coming at all. It’s used perfectly, in that you don’t believe it at first, but it settles down. It’s one of the best deliver twists ever, with plenty of people saying they didn’t see that coming as we left the screen.
Director Roger Michell, who sadly died between finishing the film and its release, wonderfully tells a story that’s about community and the goodness in people. It’s an interesting small slice of relatively modern history, that still feels relevant today. The cast are excellent and it’s a purely a wonderful little film that shouldn’t be missed.
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Starring: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell
Rating: ★★★½
After false starts and delays we have another solo Batman film, this time simply called The Batman. Co-writer and director Matt Reeves delivers a more slow-burn story that leans into the detective side of Batman than action. At points it’s almost a noir film with voiceover and a gritty approach to Gotham City’s underworld.
Anyone who still has doubts that Robert Pattinson isn’t fit to be Batman, put your mind at ease. Pattinson fills out the suit perfectly, being completely believable as The Dark Knight. He looks the part and there’s not one moment while he’s in the cowl that you don’t believe he’s Batman. As Bruce Wayne on the other hand, he’s more as a brooding teenager than the charismatic billionaire that we’ve come to expect. It’s jarring compared to what’s come before, and he doesn’t spend enough time as Wayne to really settle into the role. Â
Matt Reeves has wonderfully created his own unapologetic take on the legendary character. It feels completely different to any of the film versions that have come before, with a distinct look and feel. Gotham has never felt so alive as it does here, with so many villains and characters popping up. Compared to some other recent DC films, it doesn’t feel like there’s any compromising going on behind the scenes. Reeves and Pattinson are doing there own thing and that’s enough to make this film worth watching. At no point does it feel like this is a cash-in. There’s also a lot of bonus points for not going over Martha and Thomas Wayne’s death in detail, again.
While it’s still a man in a bat suit tackling crime, it does feel a lot more grounded than recent superhero films, or even the recent Batman inspired TV series, Gotham.  The villains are real people, not over-the-top caricatures. Colin Farrell is absolutely brilliant as The Penguin, and one of the strongest parts of the film. Jeffrey Wright is perfectly cast as Jim Gordon. Andy Serkis is sadly completely underused in the film, barely making an appearance. His version of Alfred is clearly inspired by Sean Pertwee’s excellent performance from Gotham, but he’s not in it enough to really leave an impression. Zoë Kravitz, however, does leave an impression and is absolutely excellent as Catwoman, when do we get her solo film? Â
Paul Dano, on the other hand, is not believable as The Riddler, he just doesn’t pull of calculated madness of the iconic character. His plot of unveiling the corruption of Gotham City quickly unravels itself with an ending that doesn’t land with a punch. Dano is intense whenever he’s on screen, but there’s never a real sense of The Riddler’s true genius. That’s probably mostly down to his riddles and clues being stupid and some of his killings feeling like something ripped straight out of Saw. Then in the third act his plan just falls apart completely. It is an origin story for The Riddler, but it’s not a good one.
There’s less of a focus on the action and fighting this time around and more on the detective side of Batman’s character which is something we haven’t seen enough of on the big screen. Even so, the action and set pieces are fantastic, it looks awesome to watch and the car chase that’s hinted at in the trailers is one of the best moments of the story. The fight choreography is fantastic. There’s a moment where Batman if taking down people, in the flashes of gunfire and it feels like something that could have been lifted from the comics. It’s looks great and is exciting to watch.
The Batman is an incredibly long film, running at almost three hours in total, and it really suffers because of it. There are so many moments that just don’t feel necessary and pad out the run time. It’s a real slog to get through and the third act makes everything feel kind of pointless. For the most part Batman isn’t doing much, he follows the clues, but the film makes a point of telling you that the story would continue without his involvement, up until it can’t.
There are also a couple of silly moments that completely take you out of the grounded and gritty reality. It’s made even worse by how serious the film takes itself, so when silly things happen they’re harder to ignore. An event that takes place during the day is disrupted by a man with a bomb strapped to him and a phone taped to his hand that is to be answered by the Batman. Bruce is there but can’t answer so the film just skips to night-time when he can return as Batman. He couldn’t just get changed quickly, he must come back hours later, while the man is just sat there, and no one is doing anything about it. There’s also a really forced emotional moment between Bruce and Alfred feels cringy to watch.
The greatest crime the film commits is with its music. The main theme for Batman, which feels very ‘Darth Vadery’ when it first starts is just a short piece repeated over and over in different styles with varying instruments and tempos. It’s grows really irritating very quickly and is made even worse by just how many times it’s repeated throughout the film, tunnelling its way into your ear so you can’t get it out on the way home. When that’s not playing it’s either Ava Maria, The Riddler’s theme, or Nirvana. There are no real great moments of the score, but then again, no Batman score is going to beat Danny Elfman’s.
The Batman is stylish and bold, not being afraid to be its own thing. Reeve’s film feels completely different to every Batman that’s come before. It does suffer with some poor pacing and some silly moments, but it’s one of the better DC films from the last few years and will lead to bigger and greater things.
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Ashley Manning 