Category: Comedy

Nope

Rated: MNope

Written, Produced and Directed by: Jordan Peele

Also Produced by: Ian Cooper p.g.a.

Executive Produced by: Robert Graf, Win Rosenfeld

Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Keith David.

‘What’s a bad miracle?’

Nope is the third movie Jordan Peele has directed (among many others he has written), and I had high expectations after enjoying, Get Out (2017) and Us (2019).

Peele has a certain off-kilter vision in his films that translates here, opening with a monkey on a TV set, covered in blood.

I didn’t know what I was walking into with, Nope, producer Ian Cooper explaining the intention to withhold from giving away too much away in the trailers.  All that was clear was the title, Nope, which I thought was perhaps a wry push too far but the humour here is spot on.

Cooper goes on to explain that Jordan was originally thinking of, ‘Little Green Men’ for the title, hinting at, “The idea of the quest for fame and fortune, and the quest for documenting existence of life beyond Earth,” Cooper says. “The double entendre of ‘Little Green Men’ was a way in which you could talk about dollar bills as well as talk about aliens and the unknown.”

As always with Jordan, the concept of, Nope is unique.

Inheriting the horse ranch from their father, Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David), OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) attempt to continue the legacy as horse wranglers for film and TV.

Living on a ranch, far out in the Sant Clarita Valley in Southern California, the sky is endless, the expanse filled with clouds and something otherworldly lurking within.

The film has a western feel with OJ selling horses to child star, come cowboy-themed fair owner, Ricky ‘Jupe’ Park (Steven Yeun), crossed with the family drama of the reserved, OJ and his larger-than-life sister, Emerald – the people person of the partnership – crossed with a sci-fi with an alien creature causing electrical black-outs before sucking up whatever happens to be looking up into its guts.

The horror aspect of the film the sound of screams from the sky when the power cuts out.

It’s not an in-your-face horror here, more an unsettled feeling built with the soundtrack but also with the strangeness of the film.

It’s a confusing beginning and continues with random threads brought into the storyline that don’t always make sense in the general narrative of the film.  There is some structure with chapters named after the horses featured in the film.  But otherwise the threads are left to spool with not all coming full circle, well, not quite.

The cinematographer character, Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott) brought to the ranch to help capture what’s lurking in the sky comments, ‘That’s the dream I never wake up from.’  It sounds cool.  But doesn’t quite have enough weight in the end to stand up straight.  Again, adding to the slight disconcerting tilt to the film.

The wonder I had about the humour being pushed too far with the title, Nope was however, unfounded.  Daniel Kaluuya as the steady and reserved horse wrangler gives the word ‘nope’ a weight that just tickles.  Again, Kaluuya is well-cast and obviously a favourite of Peele’s because he brings it every single time.

All the characters in, Nope are well-cast, Angel (Brandon Perea) the Fry’s Electronics IT expert adds another layer of humour as he misses his girlfriend while ingratiating himself into the plot of the film because he’s slowly losing the plot with his life and needs to be involved.

It’s an entertaining film.  A strange slightly off-kilter film where Jordan has juxtaposed sci-fi, (some) horror, family drama and western that comes together as something funny and unique.  I just couldn’t quite get on board with the why of it.  Still, a fun ride.

Official Competition

Rated: MOfficial Competition

Directed by: Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn

Written by: Andrés Duprat, Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn

Starring: Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas & Oscar Martínez.

Viewed in Spanish with English subtitles.

‘What a wanker.’

It’s Humberto’s (José Luis Gómez) 80th birthday.  His life summed up in the presents laid out before him: a massage chair, a Virgin Mary under a glass dome, a rifle set in its casing.  A painting of a sad clown.

He’s a millionaire who feels like he has money but no prestige.

He wants to be remembered, differently.

He decides he wants to build a bridge.  Or a movie.  Yes, fund a movie.  A good one.  Only the best.

Enter award winning director, Lola Cuevas (Penélope Cruz).

Humberto buys the rights of a Nobel Prize winning novel to base this, only-the-best movie on, and having failed to read it, he asks Lola what it’s about.

She explains its about a rivalry between two brothers.  She has the two actors in mind to build on that rivalry for the film:

Iván Torres (Oscar Martínez): a teacher, an academic, an actor of integrity and respect.

And, Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas): popular, multi-award winning and arriving at rehearsal in a Lamborghini pashing his latest.

Let the butting of egos begin.

Official Competition is a movie about making a movie, most of the set in an expansive, minimalist house as Lola pulls the actors into the minds of their characters.

Kinda sounds boring, but it’s brilliant watching the techniques used to get the ego’s of these two actors into a place so Lola gets the tone she needs for each scene.

‘I want the truth,’ she demands.

Have to say, Penélope Cruz as Lola looks amazing as the sensitive, brilliant and dedicated director, Lola.  She is the wild, red curly-haired, sensitive and very aware puppeteer.

The film is about how very different these two actors she’s chosen to play the parts as brothers, are; to then realise, they’re as vain as each other.

Iván at one point is seen to be accepting a pretend Academy Award in the mirror, after denying he’d ever lower himself to the popularist farce, and of course not speaking anything but Spanish, to announce in his pretend speech that he was only attending the ceremony to formally reject the award.

Meanwhile, Lola looks incredulously at an online video of Félix making a plea to save the pink dolphin.

I just kept bursting out laughing.

It’s hilarious, all set to Lola’s tricks, using big screens in the background of monologues, rocks suspended over their heads during rehearsal, the sound of kissing while surrounded by microphones, a meat grinder used to signify transition but also showing the edge of Lola’s destruction.

Even Iván’s wife, Violeta (Pilar Castro) an academic hipster who’s written a children’s book is shown as vain as Iván shares a new piece of discordant music where she comments on the brilliance of the tribal drumming.  But no, that’s just next door banging on the wall, again.

This is one of those quietly clever films that seems like it’s not about much but then gives you a tickle when the cleverness of a layer reveals itself.

The whole film’s about ego so in the end the film finishes with a forced clever ending with an ego all of its own.

Great acting, unique and clever story and a good laugh.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Rated: MThe Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Directed by: Tom Gormican

Written by: Tom Gormica & Kevin Etten

Produced by: Nicolas Cage, Mike Nilon, Kristin Burr p.g.a., Kevin Turen

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholtz, Alesssandra, Mastronardi, Jacod Scipio, Lily Sheen, with Neil Patrick Harris and Tiffany Haddish.

‘You’re a fucking movie star and don’t you forget it.’

Massive talent is a clever movie because it has all the humour of the Nick Cage swagger, yet layered with Nick as Nick, then Nick writing a script about the movie that is Nick, which is an, ‘adult drama’ about the friendship of two men, that is to say Nick being invited to the house of Javi (Pedro Pascal), a supposed murderous weapons dealer, in Mallorca for his birthday.

For $1 million Nick hopes the request isn’t for anything more than a party invite.

Turns out Javi has a script he wants Nick to read.

He’s a huge fan.

They get along.

It’s like kids hanging out that click and know they’re going to be best friends.

It’s good fun with some decent belly laughs along with the clever fold of story over the actor that is Nick.  He evens has an alter ego of himself as young Nick – ‘Never shit on yourself.’

There is more to the story of the film then the Cage-factor with kidnapping and cartels set on the coast of Spain.

Family drama gets involved with the ever suffering, thank-god-she’s-in-my-life ex-wife, Olivia (Sharon Horgan) with daughter Addy (Lily Sheen), ‘she thought Humphrey Bogart was a porn star.’

There’s some great dialogue here and Nick’s little flicks of the head and self-obsession in therapy with said family is gold.  As is the sincerity of Javi’s fandom seen in his wide-eyed star-struck regard of Nick.

I felt like the film goes on a bit at the end (a bit like this review, but never shit on yourself ; ) and the soundtrack gets jaunty, letting down the tone down at times.  But a good entertainer with some clever thrown in that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Rated: MA15+Everything Everywhere All At Once

Directed by: Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert)

Produced by: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Jonathan Wang, Mike Larocca

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., with James Hong and Jamie Lee Curtis.

‘No time to wait’.

Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) and Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan) own and run a laundry they live above, in a small apartment with their daughter, Eleanor (Stephanie Hsu) and elderly father (James Hong).

Evelyn sits at the kitchen table, sifting through paperwork.  It’s time to submit their taxes.

A mundane existence.  But seen like life viewed through a mirror.  So even at the beginning, the film feels otherworldly.

That feeling builds as the film circles around again and again, so the sign of a bagel becomes significant, a fanny pack with a fluffy pig hanging as an ornament becomes a weapon, only to reappear later as a tattoo.  Or the mispronunciation of the title of a movie, Racoontouille (instead of, Ratatouille) becomes a reality.

The thought put into the making of this film is seen in the detail of creating this infinite multi-universe where the characters jump from one dimension to the other.  ‘Verse jumping’ gives them the ability of their other self in the another dimension.  So, need martial arts?  Verse jump to a universe where your self has that skill.  All it takes is a particular act, a touch of an earpiece and you’re set.

The particular required act to verse jump gets bizarre and hilarious, as do some of the other selves in other universes.

And the dynamics of the characters fold back again and again with a constant, sometimes gentle humour – a customer’s bag of laundry kept upstairs in the apartment, ‘I think the clothes are happier there’ – and sometimes delightfully twisted humour (sausages for fingers anyone?), weaved all the way through the storyline.

Even the interchange of language from English to Chinese adds to the blurring as Waymond arrives in this universe to take the body of Evelyn’s husband in the current universe to tell her that she’s the only one who can save the multiverse from the evil Toboki (Stephanie Hsu).  All the while tax auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis) is telling Evelyn that there can’t be anything more important than what’s she’s telling her about her current taxes, right now.  And this coming from an award-winning auditor – the phallic trophies on proud display.

I have to say, Jamie Lee Curtis is just pure gold as this tax auditor character.  Absolutely brilliant casting and performance.  Hilarious.

The whole cast is amazing with Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn in what looks like herself as an actress blended into the multiverse story.

There’s some far-reaching ideas here with the title of the movie just so apt.

And added to the Kung Fu fighting and humour there’s also a good foundation to the family drama so I had a good giggle, got a little teary, and was pleasantly surprised by edgy concepts held together with the use of chapters to give the movie structure.

I don’t want to give too much away because there will be plenty of buzz about this film and if you’re reading this review, you’re more than likely going to go watch it and I highly recommend it: go watch it.

The Bad Guys

Rated: PGThe Bad Guys

Directed by: Pierre Perifel

Based on: The Scholastic book series by Aaron Blabey

Produced by: Damon Ross and Rebecca Huntley

Executive Producers: Aaron Blabey, Etan Cohen and Patrick Hughes

Starring: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Lilly Singh and Alex Borstein.

‘We may be bad but we’re so good at it.’  Meet, The Big Bad Wolf (Sam Rockwell).

Mr. Wolf is part of The Bad Guys – a gang of villains who just love being bad and stealing stuff.

There’s Mr. Snake (Marc Maron): a master like Houdini at opening a safe… without hands…

Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), AKA Wizz: an eight-legged hacker;

Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson): a master of disguise, ‘I’m a destruction worker.’

And Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) – he’s crazy and farts when nervous.

Natural selection has handed The Bad Guys the card of being feared – everyone’s terrified of them, so why not be bad?!

When Governor Foxington (Zazie Beetz) calls the gang out on TV as being sad and needing to fill a hole in their being with money which is never going to work because they just want to be loved… Mr. Wolf sees red and decides it’s time to steal the ultimate bad guy prize: The Golden Dolphin.  A trophy given to the one citizen who’s done the most good.

Meet: Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade).  A guinea pig and therefore nicknamed, ‘Pig’.  He’s Mr. Snakes favourite food.

The storyline is setup as a heist movie for kids.  And not just because of the animation (DreamWorks excelling again with their detail in fur). But because of all the lame dad jokes.

‘You’re good at this.’

‘I’m kind of a natural.  Learned mostly from YouTube.’

There are some predictable twists in the plot with underlying main message of there’s ‘a flower of goodness in everyone, just waiting to blossom’.

But the tone of the film as a caper, with split screens and jaunty soundtrack, reminiscent of an Ocean’s movie, felt twee.

I know, a kid’s movie.  But the, ‘One of these days their luck is gonna run out,’ and the meteor falling to earth that Pig/Prof sees as a heart, naw, yet The Bad Guys see as a butt… Well, that actually was pretty funny.

And the, naw does get turned on its head.

It just wasn’t surprising.

The attempt of being edgy and diabolical made the film less edgy.

I liked the characters and the fact, Mr. Wolf can taste the air and hear colour.  But the lines of the characters didn’t always land making, The Bad Guys an OK watch but nothing over exciting.

Dog

Rated: MDog

Directed by: Channing Tatum & Reid Carolin

Story by: Reid Carolin, Brett Rodriguez

Produced by: Gregory Jacobs, Peter Kiernan, Brett Rodriguez

Starring: Channing Tatum, Ryder McLaughlin, Aavi Haas.

‘You’re more than just a dog.’

Opening the film to puppy pics then written assessments, Lulu, a Belgian Malinois Army K9 is no ordinary dog.

With eight military tours to her name, Lulu was part of the Ranger Battalion team.

But after injury and her master, Rodriguez dying in a high speed car crash, she’s not the same dog.

US army Ranger, Jackson Briggs (Channing Tatum) finds out the hard way, ‘You do not want to touch her ears.’

Banged up and on forced leave but desperate to get back into the action, Briggs has one more job to complete before his sergeant signs off the last document, clearing him for active duty: he has to drive from Washington to Arizona to take Lulu to her master’s funeral.  Then take her on her last journey to be put down because now, she’s a killer dog that’s unmanageable.

It’s understandable to think, Oh, it’s another one of those tear-jerker dog movies…

But there’s something unique here that’s funny and kind, with man and dog damaged in a job they love, where they were, ‘kicking doors, getting our murder on.’

Dog is a movie that surprises in its depth.

It reminded me of how Hemingway writes men: stoic with a soft spot when understood – think, the character Thomas Hudson and his cat in, Islands in the Stream.

Channing Tatum is great in his role as an army brute with a scar running up the back of his neck on a road trip with a ferocious dog he can’t stop talking too.

Of course they win each other over, that’s kind of expected with this type of movie, but the military angle added another layer so it was two brutes that save each other.

There’re light-hearted moments that are so strange that it feels like real life, while also touching on sensitive subjects like PTSD, war and suicide.

So yes, it gets emotional but without any forced sentiment.  Because more than anything it’s a cracker of a well-paced story about a man and a dog.

I’ve never liked Channing Tatum as much as I like him in this film.

Book of Love

Rated: MBook of Love

Directed by: Analeine Cal y Mayor

Written by: David Quantick & Analeine Cal y Mayor

Produced by: Naysun Alae-Carew, Michael Knowles, Allan Niblo & Richard Alan Reid

Starring: Sam Claflin, Verónica Echegui, Fernando Becerril, Horacio Villalobos and Lucy Punch.

‘You’ve never been in love,’ Maria (Verónica Echegui) tells Henry (Sam Claflin).

She can tell by the way he writes, his novel, ‘The Sensible Heart,’ described by Henry as a book about practical love.

Yawn.

That’s what anyone who’s ever read it thinks.

Until Maria translates the book into Spanish, to become the Number 1 Best Seller in Mexico.

She does more than translate, she re-writes Henry’s passionless vision of love into a sex-romp.

He wonders why Mexican fans are sending him sex-pics.

When he finds out about the changes to his book (he doesn’t speak Spanish which adds to the comedy) he’s mortified.  But who cares?  It’s selling.

So when his publisher (Lucy Punch) forces Henry to go to Mexico to promote the book (he didn’t write) it’s a comedy of awkward moments as this stuffy Englishman tries to politely give credit to a book he didn’t write while falling in love with the woman who re-writes him.

Book Of Love lives up to the romance of the title with the extra hint of pink font in the opening credits.

Polite and stuffy yet handsome Englishman meets passionate with unrecognised talent, Mexican single mum, Maria.

Classic romantic set-up.

It’s a comedy too (rom-com), lacy undies thrown on stage included.  And there’s sheep.

It’s a light-weight viewing that rolls along on sweet moments with son and grandpa Max (Fernando Becerril) in the back of the Volkswagen beetle brought along on tour because they can’t be trusted to be alone.  Then there’s the jealous ex with comments like, ‘I promise this is the last time I let you down.’

The humour appealed to my cynicism, so I wanted Maria to succeed.

There’re a few hurdles in this love story to keep it interesting, and a fresh take on the drama that unfolds between new love and letting go of the old.  Or not even letting go just knowing what feels right and what is so obviously wrong.  And understanding the difference between lust and love; how love is an ideal not a reality, that people are the reality of love and that people let you down.  But that passion is also part of love and in the end can lead to one big hot mess but that’s OK.

It all gets a bit unrealistic, in other words a rom-com (what did you expect?!) where I chuckled a few times with the romance sweet without being over cheesy.

Marry Me

Rated: PGMarry Me

Directed by: Kat Coiro

Screenplay Written by: John Rogers & Tami Sagher, Harper Dill

Based on the Graphic Novel by: Bobby Crosby

Produced by: Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Jennifer Lopez, Benny Medina, John Rogers

Executive Produced by: Alex Brown, Willie Mercer, Pamela Thur, J. B. Roberts

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Maluma, John Bradley and Sarah Silverman.

Married three times and about to marry for the forth, super star Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) has written a song with her also-a-super-star fiancé, Bastian (Maluma): Marry Me.

They’re set to sing the song at their wedding recorded live to stream across all platforms to over 20 million people making them the two most famous people on the planet.

And in front of all those people, Kat’s world falls apart when Bastian is posted cheating with her assistant.  She sees the post just before rising onto the stage of her wedding.

Enter, Charlie (Owen Wilson).

Divorced and dad of Lou (Chloe Coleman), math teacher with no criminal record and holding up a sign: Marry Me.

They lock eyes.

OK.

So they get married.  But only for show.  It’s a meltdown, an impulsive moment.  It will pass.  The media frenzy will die down.  It’s just for show.

Until it’s not.

I didn’t think I’d get into this movie, the premise being more than a stretch…  Well, not so much these days?!

And I guess that’s of the point of the film, questioning the idea of getting married.  Falling in love with the idea of the person and not who the person really is but what you want them to be.

There’s some foundation to the idea of these superstar with Jennifer Lopez being a singer and dancer in real life (alongside Latin music star Maluma), so the characters had some cred.

I wasn’t one-hundred percent sold on the Charlie character but he had some good lines, ‘I was, I am a fun guy.’  Tongue in cheek.  He is a likeable guy.  It was more the lack of chemistry between the celebrity singer and normal guy Charlie.

This is a film about getting to know each other rather than a steamy romance.

He is a math teacher who goes to bed at 8pm to read a book.

So it’s more about the relationship and the magic of taking that leap of faith.  A romance that has some chuckles but is more about friendship.

It’s a little like, Notting Hill (1999) with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant where the superstar actress falls for the normal guy.  But stretch that to a massive audience and streamed live on social media.

The formula’s always the same: the unlikely match, to the relationship working, to an obstacle, to taking the leap and overcoming the doubt, to tear jerker moment to heart-warming ending.

I’m admit to some cynicism.

But I kinda got into it with the aging British Bulldog, Tank used well to provoke those warm and fuzzies that will encourage hand holding leading up to Valentine’s Day.

Go on, take that leap of faith.  Or don’t.

Either way, I agree with the sentiment, ‘If you want something different you have to do something different.’

 

India Sweets and Spices

Rated: MIndia Sweets and Spices

Directed and Written by: Geeta Malik

Produced by: John Penotti, Sidney Kimmel, Gigi Pritzker, Naomi Despres

Starring: Sophia Ali, Manisha Koirala, Rish Shah, Adil Hussain, Deepti Gupta, Anita Kalathara.

India Sweets and Spices presents a feast of Indian food and a glittering array of saris as the residents of Ruby Hill dress to the hilt for a weekly rotation of dinner parties during the holiday season. When Alia (Sophia Ali), the eldest daughter a successful heart surgeon (Adil Hussain), returns home from her first year away at university she is expected to play the role of demure Indian daughter looking to attract a suitable husband at these gatherings, but she has long ago outgrown her part. Now she cannot even pretend that she doesn’t find life in this bourgeois Indian enclave utterly stultifying. On the night before her departure she confides to a friend that it’s: ‘The place where brain cells go to die’.

During her time at UCLA, Alia has become heavily involved in social justice issues and takes it as her right that she is entitled to speak out and act upon what she believes in. Much to the horror of her mother. Sheila (Manisha Koirala) is not only a bored but devoted housewife and hostess extraordinaire, she is also the unofficial queen of the Ruby Hill social scene, and she is a woman with a past. It is a secret she has been keeping from her children and the community. In a community where everyone has a secret.

Once a haven for new arrivals looking to safely establish themselves in their adopted country, Ruby Hill has over time become a locked cage, where the corrosive tongues of ‘the aunties’ not only keep the residents in and in line but also keep new arrivals out. On the surface life is uncomplicated and easy in this enclave of backyard swimming pools, luxury vehicles and fantasy weddings where a groom might ride in on a tiger, but the entire community is being held hostage to the threat of exposure and embarrassment. It is a powerful deterrent, but the carefully manicured web of illusion this coterie has cultivated around themselves is impossible to maintain, even with the most watchful of blind eyes.

When Alia locks eyes with her new beau (Rish Shah) in the biscuit aisle of the local Indian grocery store and on impulse invites him and his family to a weekly dinner party, it will tug at a thread that will eventually unravel all of the secrets. Beginning with, possibly, the biggest secrets of all. The ones her own family have been keeping from her.

This feminist romantic comedy/ coming of age drama begins with a finely wrought script from Geeta Malik, with some precisely-calibrated lines for Alia to deploy against the ‘aunties’. Originally reading for the part of Alia’s best friend Neha (Anita Kalathara), Sophia Ali has been beautifully cast Alia Kapur as she tenaciously pursues the question, ‘What if we are who we are and then we don’t recognise ourselves anymore?’ It’s not only a question for Alia; the conundrum equally applies to Sheila and Ranjit when their secrets are finally revealed. As it is, perhaps, for many more in their circle.

Red Rocket

Rated: MA15+Red Rocket

Directed by: Sean Baker

Screenplay Written by: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch

Produced by: Sean Baker, Shih-Chihg Tsou, Alex Saks

Starring: Simon Rex, Bree Elrod, Suzanna Son, Shih-Ching Tsou, Parker Bigham, Brenda Deiss, Ethan Darbone, Brittany Rodriguez, Judy Hill, Marion Lambert.

‘Why are you here?’

Bruised and sleeping on a bus, Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) is back in Texas.

He fronts up at his ex’s mum’s house – ‘What are you doing here?’ asks Lexi (Bree Elrod).  Because she knows Mikey way too well.

But Mikey knows which buttons to press.  He’s a fast talking, ex-porn star who’s ‘been blessed’ with a decent package and good looks.  And no moral compass.

He’ll say and do anything to survive.

He’ll f*#k his ex-wife just to sleep in a bed, deal pot to make money.  And seduce a seventeen-year-old girl because she’s smoke’n hot.

Meet, Strawberry (Suzanna Son).  Sweet and not-so-innocent, she’s a young girl who ‘likes men not boys.’

She doesn’t stand a chance.  Because Mikey has decided he likes her.  He’s going to make her famous.

‘What did the donuts do on their first date?’ Mikey asks Strawberry – she works at a donut shop.

‘They glazed into each other’s eyes,’ he smiles.

I could kinda get behind this guy down-on-his-luck.  But when he starts to charm this young girl, I started to cringe.

There’s a glib lightness to the film but underneath there’s a dark reality.

‘Your mother hates me.’

‘She hated you.  She died,’ says Lonnie (Ethan Darbone).  He’s the nextdoor neighbour.

It’s a sad place, with smoke stacks of oil refineries blowing pollution into the air virtually in the backyard.  The emergency test announcement can be heard in the bedroom.

It’s like this chancer brings light into the lives of these people because they have so little and he’s so nice and polite.  They don’t see what’s happening at first because he lifts them up, shines a light.  Until suddenly they see how much he takes.  When it’s too late.

I didn’t find the film funny or light.  Like Mikey, there’s a dark layer underneath shown in a-day-in-a-life style of filming that’s really about prostitution, drugs, sickness, poverty, betrayal, fake valour, selfishness and complete blindness and lack of empathy.

Not that Red Rocket is a badly made film.  The casting is brilliant.  But it was like it was up to the audience to decide how things were going to work out, depending if you’re an optimist, meaning, Strawberry will be OK.  She’ll be discovered as a musician.  Someone aside from Mikey will see her worth.  Or not, only the worst is to come.  And I lean towards the cynical these days making me see only bad things to then realise how dangerous and blind this character Mikey is as he continues to politely destroy.

It was disconcerting because the film is from the point of view of Mikey.  So I could see what he’s doing is wrong but he can’t see the damage, so I got angry at this douche bag and wanted to yell and kick him in the guts.  He turned up

He turned up with bruises and you get to know why, well pretty much straight away.

I get the layers of the film, but it annoyed me and in the end, I was left feeling angry.

Subscribe to GoMovieReviews
Enter your email address for notification of new reviews - it's free!

 

Subscribe!