Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child Of Fire (2023)
Dir. by Zack Snyder
Though eternal discourse from online man-children will paint Zack Snyder as either a god among filmmakers or a completely talentless hack, the truth is (obviously) more balanced. He’s got great visual instincts that rarely translate that well to storytelling, something afflicts his long-awaited first entry of Rebel Moon rather harshly. It also matches the Snyder-ism of profound bloat in release, not only being perfunctorily chopped in half, but with its own Snyder Cut already on the cards. All of that is to say, if you’re expecting the existing version of Rebel Moon to be a jerky, unfinished lummox of a film…well, yeah, it is. And it’s not even entertaining in that mould, either. Plenty has been made of a plot that screws various beats from extremely well-known properties together—Seven Samurai, Avater, a scene that’s lifted beat-for-beat from the first Star Wars—which transpires as a dull, lifeless, generic work without a single character you’ll care about even remotely. Anthony Hopkins is in this, as the voice of Jimmy (y’know, iconic sci-fi character Jimmy), who probably gets the most interesting bit of development in that he…has antlers at the end, for some reason. Otherwise, there’s not a lot about a cast doing their best that rescues ‘farm girl assembles team to fight evil empire’ from the intense weight of its own trope, and the even more intense boredom it inspires. To pin the hope on a second part to save this, there has to be something about it that’s worth saving in the first place. • LN
Poor Things (2024)
Dir. by Yorgos Lanthimos
A film director having a totally unique perspective and style is like capturing lightning in a bottle, but Yorgos Lanthimos’ dark and depraved storytelling with a twinkle in the eye has long kept him a cut above the rest. His latest film Poor Things has been described as a “twisted fairytale”, something he’s done before with 2015’s The Lobster. But while that film was tethered by its modern-day setting, Poor Things is a completely creative endeavour in every aspect, marrying futuristic and Victorian aesthetics to create a narrative that takes from period drama, science fiction and Eat Pray Love all at once. Costumes and production design are especially integral to creating this world and the results are delectable, the Lisbon and Paris created for the film absolute dreamworlds. At the centre of the project, Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter encourages viewers (especially women) to chase joy while wearing the extensive character work of the actress completely on her sleeve as she integrates into society, with the no-holds-barred ridiculousness of Mark Ruffalo providing the film’s most consistent laughs. Poor Things’ focus on sex—Bella’s enjoyment and abundance of it one of the central plot points—has seen accusations of pandering to the male gaze, but this is all-in-all a feminist story of a woman doing what makes her happy in a world that seeks to stop such a thing, all wrapped up in a beautifully creative bow to make a gem in Yorgos Lanthimos’ filmography. • GJ
Echo (S1) (2024)
Echo has never been the most interesting character in the Marvel pantheon, but the fact that no one ever shuts about Daredevil or The Punisher is probably enough of a reason to give her her own quasi-tied-in series. Apparently this brings the Netflix Marvel shows into the MCU now, given that there’s apparently no longer some fear of making these a bit grittier to match the street level. It’s a bit of an overstatement to call Echo ‘mature’, but there is a bit more going for it in that vein, be that a bit more blood spilled, or a slightly slower-paced, more contemplative story. Alaqua Cox can certainly sell a conflicted narrative within that, herself being deaf and Native American to make this the most authentic portrayal of the character as possible. And with an all-around good supporting cast and a five-episode run that generally feels like a good fit, it settles in a smaller-scale crime drama well. But—at the risk of parroting the opinions of those who’ll immediately dismiss this for its non-white, non-male lead—Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin is such a welcome return, and he does steal the show whenever he’s onscreen. He’s not there that much, but the quaking magnetism when he is is properly palpable. He’s not here to ‘legitimise’ this—on its own merits, it’s a good standalone show, away from the majority of MCU baggage—but you can tell he’s a real big get moving forward, considering what’s being teased ahead. Even if the memory of Echo itself won’t be the absolute most enduring, at least it provides something overall great. • LN
The Traitors (BBC)
The following contains spoilers for series one and two of The Traitors.
After a perfect series one last year, the second series of BBC’s The Traitors has set social media feeds alight this month. Set in a castle in Scotland, 22 players must work who among them is a ‘Traitor’, whittling their number down across the series and hoping only the ‘Faithful’ are left at the end to take home a huge cash prize. While last year’s crop of episodes centred around a small group of Traitors and their eventual downfall, this year’s has upped the stakes and backstabbing, with a Traitor win looking likely for tonight’s grand final. The central game is a brilliant catalyst for psychological phenomena in action and juicy drama, but the high camp everything’s delivered with, both baked into the show’s format and by fantastic host Claudia Winkleman, creates moments no other reality show could. It’s yet other piece of evidence towards why shows featuring the regular ol’ British public in all its forms are the best to watch, and with the twists and turns on the show and the memes and commentary online, The Traitors has certainly made this January a lot less bleak. • GJ
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
Dir. by Francis Lawrence
Here’s a theory—this was originally planned as a series, but because the Lionsgate streaming service is something that no one on the planet has, turning it into a film made more sense. In theory, anyway. The Hunger Games was already one of the few YA properties of 2010s to actually finish its franchise-building, let alone see success, and a prequel this much later feels like a studio pushing their luck. Then you hear the premise, about a young President Snow and how he turned bad, and you realise that this didn’t have to be made. It’s doubly true when the plot just meanders along, never set in stone outside of a very unconvincing relationship between Tom Blyth’s Snow and Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird (for whom being half his height and looking like a 12-year-old only exacerbates the discomfort). There’s also the fact that, among all of that, there’s barely a story worth telling. Watching a proto-Hunger Games can be cool, except when it feels like it should be an endpoint and just…isn’t. Snow himself flip-flops between emotions and motivations, to where the bulk of his arc feels crammed into the last ten minutes of the film. Peter Dinklage and Viola Davis are in this, probably as the most entertaining parts but even then, that isn’t saying much. It’s just a weird pile-up of half-ideas and unrecognised concepts, shoved into a film that’s already too longer, but is somehow merciful for not being even longer. • LN
Mean Girls (2024)
Dir. by Samantha Jayne & Arturo Perez Jr.
Twenty-somethings have reached the age where much of their formative media is being remade for younger generations, news of a Mean Girls remake met with eyerolls and protests galore. It later transpired that this would be a film adaptation of the Broadway show, but the musical aspects (that were never hinted at in the trailers) leave a lot to be desired. None of the numbers pack a punch or are even all that memorable, plus production are clearly working around the limited vocal abilities of Angourie Rice who plays Cady, the lead (a GoPro-esque shot of Rice storming down a corridor singing terribly is one of the funniest parts of the whole film). The script is a disaster too, letting down Renée Rapp, Jaquel Spivey and Auli’i Cravalho (who are easily the best at selling the Broadway parts of the movie) in favour of a galling amount of product placement. Most unforgivably, it takes all the bite out of these supposed nasty teenagers’ actions and thus gives no believable build-up to Cady’s defection to the dark side. The most memorable parts are the direct recreations of Mean Girls moments (basically the entire rest of the script), but that’s because they’re already ingrained into our brains, not because these new, Wish versions bring anything else to the table. • GJ
Words by Luke Nuttall (LN) and Georgia Jackson (GJ)
