It's been a busy week at the cinema!
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery - Amazing follow up to Knives Out, the opening sequence alone put a smile on my face and it just continued to be a really fun time throughout. Highly recommend seeing it at the cinema but I think you have like 2 days so umm, be quick!
Armageddon Time - Didn't know much about this going in, it's an interesting coming of age story about a boy making some pretty awful decisions and learning some hard truths. Overall it plods along too much for my taste and the title graphic feels like it's from a different film - and they were so confident with that design they used it at the end of the film too, weird choice. However there was one scene dealing with an elderly character towards the end of their life in hospital and it hit me like a tonne of bricks as it felt so reminiscent of when I last saw my Nan a few years ago - that's a new reaction for me, felt all to real.
Confess, Fletch - I heard about this a while ago, seemed like a bit of a passion project from Jon Hamm and the director. It's fun, not essential watch at the cinema kinda film but I enjoyed it.
The Menu - I was looking forward to this and it was pretty much what I was expecting albeit with a few interesting twists (although I think the trailer gives maybe too much away). It's really interesting how we have so many films in the past month about how awful rich people are and how they treat others (Triangle of Sadness, Glass Onion, The Menu and also White Lotus on TV), certainly a big trend, I wonder if it'll continue. I think this film delivers where Triangle of Sadness didn't, in that it feels more complete and doesn't sit around for too long, I appreciate that.
Strange World - The last time Disney animation made a film about explorers it was loved by those who saw it and bombed at the box office - guess what - this film is enjoyed by those who actually watch it and it has bombed at the box office. I really liked a lot of the creative design choices made in this film and the CG details are incredible, they are really pushing the boat out with their fx sims. I thought the characters were all well rounded and enjoyable and I'm a sucker for adventurer films so this was my cup of tea.
Matilda The Musical - I enjoy the stage production of this but one thing that always bothered me was that despite how amazingly talented the cast were that Tim Minchin's lyrics can sound quite muddled. The film mostly fixes this but there are still times where it feels like no one can sing them without it sounding this way. One of the best things about the stage show is also the set design and choreography, unfortunately it feels like a lot of this gets missed in the translation to screen as it's just a much bigger canvas - moments that are great on stage feel like they don't really exist in the film. Despite this there are some great changes, the side plot about the escapologist and acrobat is great to see fleshed out in this way and the cake eating sequence is great. I think this is the best adaptation of the stage show you could ever hope for and the kids in it are amazingly talented. Also wild to see Lashana Lynch go from The Woman King to this, the range!
Bones and all - I thought this looked like an interesting concept but wow this was dull, it was like watching paint dry and then occasionally an interesting scene that lasts 5 minutes pops up. Tedious film.
She Said - This was ok, a bit of a by-the-numbers journalist tale behind the article that helped take down Harvey Weinstein. Maybe the story is just too fresh for it to be massively interesting, we all know the outcome of the story and watching a couple of journalists just doing their job maybe isn't the most interesting thing in the World.
