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.

The Forgiven

Rated: MA15+The Forgiven

Directed and Written by: John Michael McDonagh

Based on the Book Written by: Lawrence Osborne

Produced by: John Michael McDonagh, Elizabeth Eves, Trevor Matthews, Nick Gordon

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Chris Abbott, Caleb Laundry Jones.

‘Interesting in a good way?  Or interesting in a bad way?’

A speed boat takes husband and wife, David (Ralph Fiennes) and Jo Henninger (Jessica Chastain) towards the coastline of Tangier, Morocco.

It’s an unhappy interaction, Jo tapping her chin as they toss comments back and forth; well-oiled insults disguised as a battle of wits.

They’re on their way to Richard’s (Matt Smith) Moroccan indulgence – a walled castle in the middle of the Saharan desert for a weekend of partying, joined by old-school pals and others known from the, Club.

David’s been drinking all day.  He embraces the comment from Jo that he’s a highly-functioning alcoholic, commenting, the, ‘high functioning should negate the alcoholic.’

David, an English surgeon, is an abrasive, stubborn man, tolerated by his beautiful wife, a published writer of children’s books.

Drunk and lost in the dark desert, their insolent tolerance of each other is interrupted when a young boy (Omar Ghazaoui) is suddenly in the headlights of their car before he goes down.

Guests already at the party wonder what has happened to the Henningers?  As they drink and dance and revel in the beginnings of their hedonist weekend.

It’s the building tension of, The Forgiven that kept me at the edge of my seat, the film starting with red font credits, hinting of what’s to come.

There’s tension between husband and wife, David and Jo, driving in darkness, lost.  A tension in the conflict of cultures as the Moroccan staff cater to the taboo gay couple, Richard and his ‘side-piece’ Dally Margolis (Caleb Landry Jones).  Morning tea is served in rooms of naked men.  Richard is a character that understands the nature of things.  He is shameless, none-the-less.

Eventually the hosts are told of the dilemma.  A local boy is dead.  They will call the Moroccan police.  It will be OK.  No-one wants a fuss.  It was an accident.

Richard explains, you just need to be overwhelmingly contrite.

‘If it’s absolutely necessary,’ replies David.

And then the boy’s father (Ismael Kanater) arrives at the gate.

Instead of the expected black mail, the father wants David to return home with him to bury his son.

Reluctantly, David goes.

More surprising, he goes without too much fuss, no-one really knowing if he’ll come back.

And with him gone, the weekend can continue.

Based on the novel written by Lawrence Osborne, the complicated idea of this abrasive Englishman willing to leave with the nomadic father of the boy he has just killed is the beginning of the unpacking of his complicated nature.

Each character is revealed as the weekend continues with witty dialogue and silence amongst the dust and heat in contrast to the fireworks and drinking and lounging about a mirage in the desert become real.

The bourgeoise nature of the characters are honest in their debauchery, a contrast to the local Moroccans as they live with nothing but their children and fossils they dig up to sell to tourists.

And now, a father taking David back to his home to bury his only child.

The narrative is gripping in its revelation, the scenery beautiful and stark, a rose in a box of soaps can almost be smelt, the heat of the desert vibrates as David is driven to his unknown fate.

The backstory of each character has been translated into the film using the clear-eyed dialogue of its characters:

‘A woman without discretion is like a pig with a gold ring through its nose.’

‘You should open a Twitter account,’ the Moroccan staff laugh.

Like McDonagh’s previous films, greatly enjoyed and included in my, ‘If you haven’t watched, you’re in for a treat’, list: ‘The Guard (2011)’ and ‘Calvary (2014)’, The Forgiven is a quality film that will stay with you.

 

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 Black Phone

Rated: MA15+The Black Phone

Directed by: Scott Derrickson

Screenplay Written by: Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill

Based on the Short Story by: Joe Hill

Produced by: Jason Blum, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill

Executive Produced by: Ryan Turek, Christopher H. Warner

Starring: Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone and Ethan Hawke.

‘Would you like to see a magic trick?’

It’s 1978.  Finney Shaw (Mason Thames) is pitching a baseball, trying to impress a girl.

With two strikes, he almost does it.

He lives with his dad (Jeremy Davies) and little sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw).

Their dad drinks.  Finny and Gwen are tense.

Kids in town are going missing.  And they all know why.  It’s the Grabber (Ethan Hawke).  He’s taking them.

What drew me into this film was how cool the kids are – this is a movie about them; a crime, supernatural horror where kids are being kidnapped and a black phone that’s dead but still ringing.

The film is based on the short story written by, Joe Hill, Stephen King’s son and a great horror writer in his own right, see, 20th Century Ghosts (2005), short fiction piece, Best New Horror – a unique voice that’s haunting and has a punk horror feel about it.  There’s also the novel, Heart Shaped Box (2007) and others worth checking out.  Yes, I’m a fan with signed copies.

Adapted for the screen by director Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill (Sinister (2012), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) and Doctor Strange (2016)), it’s like there’s a window into what it’s like growing up in a small town in Denver: bullies, parents, crushes.  Serial Killers.

Gwen as the little sister is hilarious with her little skips of excitement and comments like, ‘Dumb fucking fart knockers.’

Not only is she a fire-cracker, she has a gift.  Her dreams show her things she’s not supposed to know, like, The Grabber has black balloons.

So when her brother’s taken, she prays to God for her dreams to show her where he’s been taken.  And desperate, the cops listen because no-one else knows about those black balloons.

The suspense is built by slowing the shots, the words silent, the sound of sinister amplifying the quiet to give a moment to feel, to then screech a sudden shot to a dead kid, to get the heart pumping.  There’re some jumps here, layered over the suspense so, The Black Phone creates a suspense thriller without the gore.

There’s a lot of thought here from director Scott Derrickson with cuts back and forth when Finney realises he’s trapped in basement, where no-one will ever hear him scream.

There’s good use of objects from the creepy mask of the killer to create an other-worldly monster, the toy rocket ship like a talisman, the crack in the wall of the prison like a bleeding cut.  And of course, the black telephone.  The ringing built in the soundtrack like the sound of a saviour.

There’s a careful stepping as each piece of the story come together, each given space and care and more thought than I expected.  And there’s restraint to let the performances of the characters become the focus.

Where do they find these kid actors?!

And there’s good support from Jeremy Davies as the dad and ‘night-night naughty boy’ Ethan Hawke suitably creepy as, The Grabber.

A better than expected suspense, supernatural thriller with thoughtful pacing set to a 70s vibe.

The Tunnel: The Other Side of Darkness

Directed by: Adrian NugentThe Tunnel: The Other Side of Darkness

Produced by: Adrian Nugent, Maria Tedschi

Executive Produced by: Enzo Tedeschi

Starring: Enzo Tedeschi, Julian Harvey, Bel Deliá, Luke Arnold, Steve Davis, Andy Rodoreda, Eduardo Sánchez, Kiah Roache-Turner, Ahmed Salama, Valeria Petrenko, Megan Riakos, Andrew Mackie.

‘Play by the rules or go away.’

Remember those piracy warning segments before watching a movie?

Before steaming, you either had to rent a movie or illegally download using a piracy platform like, BitTorrent.

Most of the population decided that downloading movies for free was OK, piracy rules be damned, so when first time producers Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey tried to figure out how they were going to fund their first feature film, they thought – let’s crowdfund the film, selling each of the 130,000 frames for $1, then release the film for free on BitTorrent.

A ground-breaking idea.  A crazy idea.  No one had ever crowdfunded a film this way before, but fuck it, it was the only way they were going to make it, so they went for it.

I had a lot of fun watching this doco.  I’m a horror fan, so it was a hoot getting a behind the scenes look at the making of this found footage horror flick, released back in 2011: The Tunnel.

But more than about making the film, this documentary opens up the discussion about a distribution and marketing model that had never been used before.

And it worked.

No one could see it happening.  And no distributor was going to touch the film once Enzo and Julian had made the decision to align with enemy number 1: BitTorrent.

Piracy was rampant.

It was going to destroy the industry – so they thought.

But the first-time producers saw the strategy as a way of getting around piracy – it’s not illegal if we’re giving it away for free.

And with 25 million people watching the film it was certainly a success.

Which comes down to the talent of all those involved in making the film – the script, the directing, the actors, with actor Steve Davis multitasking as camera crew, the director Carlo Ledesma also costume designer.

It’s a typical Indie experience, influenced by found footage movies such as, The Blair Witch Project (1999), Rec (2007) and Quarantine (2008).

There’s an honesty to the behind-the-scenes, the producers feeling out of their depth but obviously smart guys that well-deserved to get their movie out there.

And the rest of the cast included in the doco, The Tunnel director, Carlo Ledesma and the actors, Bel Deliá, Luke Arnold and Steve Davis came across as genuinely warm people who took a risk getting on board something that had absolutely no backing but throwing it all in, Indie-style.

As already said, good fun; with the interesting angle of making a movie through the power of the audience, hence the poster of, The Tunnel using all the names of the supporters to make up the image.

The Tunnel

Even when Transmission got onboard to distribute the DVD, there was still this controversy of associating Paramount (via Transmission) with BitTorrent.

A lot has changed in ten years.

The Tunnel: The Other Side of Darkness illustrates how the making of, The Tunnel embraced a new model of viewing content, AKA streaming, while waiting for the industry to catchup.

These guys were the disruptors of the industry.

Originally released on the 10-year anniversary of, The Tunnel and now showing as part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival (MDFFest) I wondered why it took so long to release the documentary as it’s clear it was always the intention.

And then there’s talk of a sequel, shown in the back-and-forth interview with Eduardo Sánchez (film maker of, The Blair Witch Project).  A definite push and a way to create buzz for the possibility of, The Tunnel 2.

Why not, I guess.

And now I’m inspired to watch the feature film itself.  See link to stream here ; )

(105) The Tunnel (2011) FULL MOVIE – YouTube

Worth a watch!

Elvis

Rated: MElvis

Directed by: Baz Luhrmann

Screenplay by: Baz Luhrmann, Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce and Jeremy Doner

Story by: Baz Luhrmann and Jeremy Doner

Produced by: Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss.

Executive Producers: Toby Emmerch, Courtenay Valenti and Kevin McCormick

Starring: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh.

‘What about you Mr. Presley, are you ready to fly?’

Written and directed by Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby (2013), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Strictly Ballroom (1992), Australia (2008), William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996)), Elvis is a biopic told from the perspective of infamous manager, Colonel, the Snowman, Tom Parker (Tom Hanks).

Colonel Parker learnt how to shake a dollar from a punter while leaving a smile on their face working in a carnival.

When he saw Elvis (Austin Butler) perform, he knew all his Christmases had come at once.

And boy, could he make it snow.

The film has a heady introduction with cuts back and forth from glaring signs and bluesy music to revival tents and the young Elvis shaking those legs.

Elvis didn’t know why the girls in the audience were screaming, until a bandmate tells him, ‘The girls want to see you wiggle.’

Austin, who sang a lot of the songs himself, is so fresh it was like getting to know the superstar all over again.  To admire the rise of this smalltown kid to become, The King.

‘That boy from Memphis,’ was put in the back of a police car after starting riots because of the way he moved on stage.

Elvis literally changed the world, embracing black America back in times of segregation while the Colonel turned his fame into a money-making machine: merchandise, records, movies, concerts, sponsors and then to the bright lights of Los Vegas.

The Colonel knew every trick in the book and then invented new ways to make money.  As long as Elvis would keep getting up on stage.

In the end, we all know, it’s a sad story, but the telling is exhilarating.

There’s risk not only in making a film about the most famous person in the world, but then changing up the music, so the soundtrack has remixes from the likes of Eminem, Doja Cat and Denzel Curry.

There’s a combination of the blues from B. B. King and Little Richard, Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton with revival music and rap so there’s an edge to the tone of the movie.

And that flash back and forth, to time stamps becoming part of the scene to cartoon add to the pace only to stop in close-up of the smoky blue of Elvis’ eyes.

Has to be said, Austin’s great as Elvis.  What an undertaking.

There’re cuts to Elvis himself and the heart still skips a beat.

What is it about this guy?!

He’s Elvis.  He’s, The King.

 

Men

Rated: MA15+Men

Written and Directed by: Alex Garland

Starring: Jesse Buckly, Rory Kinnear and Paapa Essiedu.

‘What do you want from me?!’

I had an angry response to, Ex Machina (2014) (a strong response a sign of an emotive movie, I guess).

Conversely, I really enjoyed the head-bend of, Annihilation (2018).

So I was curious to see what writer and director, Alex Garland was going to evoke with, Men.

The film follows lead character, Harper (Jesse Buckly) – it’s raining outside.

She has blood smudged under her nose.

She runs.

She stays in an idyllic country house to heal.

Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear) shows her around, a classic affable Englishman, ‘Won’t be a jiffy,’ he says.

Then comments, ‘The M4, a dreary bore.’

Then adds, ‘Watch what you flush.  It’s a septic tank and all…’

A jarring statement and a hint of what’s to come.

Geoff, it turns out, is one of the many men-clones, that Harper must endure during her time away from life.

Contrasting the clones is this heightened sense of beauty, the landscape like a moving Monet painting.

Beautiful, then flawed by a naked man, a running man, that stalks her.

The telling of, Men, feels off-centre but clever and green, like an expression of the primal with Harper taking an apple from a tree and taking a bite like Eve in the, Garden of Eden.

The film weaves around this theme of Adam and Eve, subtle, then visceral.

The present bleeds into Harper’s past, her screaming voice becoming one with the soundtrack.

What do you want from me?!

This constant demand becomes an extreme depiction of men’s misunderstanding of what a woman needs.

That a woman has her own life too.

Rather than a confronting horror, I found the thought behind the film refreshing.

 

The Innocents

Rated: TBAThe Innocents

Directed by: Eskil Vogt

Screenplay Written by: Eskil Vogt

Produced by: Maria Ekerhovd

Executive Producer: Axel Helgeland, Dave Bishop, Céline Dornier

Starring: Rakel Lenora Fløttum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim, Sam Ashraf, Ellen Dorrit Pedersen, Morten Svartveit, Kadra Yusuf, Lisa Tønne.

Norwegian with English subtitles.

‘What do you do when someone’s mean?’

A sleeping child

Is the picture of innocence.

The shot is close.

Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum) has freckles on her nose.

She has an autistic sister, Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad).  Anna’s non-verbal.  She can’t even feel a pinch.

Ida is nine years old, yet it doesn’t feel like innocence when she pinches her sister, spits from the balcony and stomps on a worm.

When writer and director, Eskil Vogt (also screenwriter of, The Worst Person in the World, ‘In Competition – Feature Films’ 2021, Festival De Cannes. See review here) was asked about the idea behind the film’s title (The Innocents) he responds,

“I think kids are beyond good and evil or rather before good and evil. But I don’t think children are little angels, that people are born pure. I think children are born without any sense of empathy or morals, we have to teach them that. That’s why I think it’s interesting to see a child doing something that we would call evil in an adult. The moral aspect is more complex since they aren’t fully formed yet.”

Ida’s family has moved, her mother (Ellen Dorrit Pedersen) tells her it’s a new school, new friends.

Ida lies back on a swing and looks at the world up-side-down.

She meets Ben (Sam Ashraf).

He’s moved around a lot.

He has a bruise on his chest.

He can also move things with his mind.

I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into at the beginning of this film – children doing mean things is confronting.

Yet, as the film continues, the characters, the children get complicated.

The Innocents is a horror with children as the main characters, with the parents on the outside, not knowing or understanding.

It’s a film about forgotten kids, who suddenly find they have powers.

Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim) who lives in the building complex, finds Anna with her mind, the film following her mind like flying through the mist of the outside.

She can hear Anna even though Anna can’t speak.

‘I’m talking to someone who isn’t here,’ Aisha tells her mother (Kadra Yusuf).

Her mother cries in secret.

When the four children are together, Ida, Ben, Anna and Aisha – they become more powerful.

But rather than focussing on the supernatural, the film is about the children exploring their new powers and how each reacts to having power, therefore revealing the truth of who they are and why.

I was haunted by this film, the power shown in the ripples of water, by the wind in the trees.  Like the audience is invited into this secret world of the children as they pick scabs and dig in a sandbox, the boredom, the exploring, the violence – I believed all of it, the children the driving force of the film, shown in careful detail by cinematographer, Sturla Brandth Grøvlen.

A quietly menacing film that’s riveting, shocking and unique.

Downton Abbey: A New Era

Rated: PGDownton Abbey: A New Era

Directed by: Simon Curtis

Written by: Julian Fellowes

Produced by: Gareth Neame, Liz Trubridge, Julian Fellowes

Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Brendan Coyle, Michelle Dockery, Kevin Doyle, Joanne Froggatt, Harry Hadden-Paton, Robert James-Collier, Allen Leech, Phyllis Logan, Elizabeth McGovern, Sophie McShera, Tuppence Middleton, Lesley Nicol, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, Penelope Wilton, Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye, Dominic West and Jonathan Zaccaï.

‘You rang, m’lady.’

The opening scene of, A New Era, is of course of the rambling castle that is, Downton Abbey.

Someone’s getting married – I’m not going to say who because I don’t want to give anything away, and I don’t know who they are because I never caught the ‘Downton Abbey train’.

I promised myself I’d keep an open mind while seeing all the smiling faces of the cast as they lamented the leaking roof and uttered comments such as, ‘We seem to have brought our butler.  I don’t know why.’

I was regretting not grabbing that second glass of bubbles…

It’s all very pleasant.  Except the leaking roof.  So when an offer is made for Downton Abbey to be used as a set for a film: The Gambler, it’s a matter of suffering a film crew for a month or continuing on with no money to repair the crumbling Abbey.

‘It’ll be exciting,’ is one statement.

One can only hope, I thought.

Then the Dowager, Violet (Maggie Smith) pipes up with, ‘We got through the war, we can get through this.’

Maggie Smith really does deliver the best lines, with plenty of opportunity with not only a film crew and a star that’s beautiful (see Laura Haddock as Myrna Dalgleish) while also being rude and speaking like a fishwife; a letter arrives, stating a villa in the South of France has been bequeathed to the Dowager.

Violet’s unperturbed by the potential scandal, planning to leave the villa to Lady Sybil.

But the Montmirail’s widow is unhappy at the loss of her villa.  And frankly insulted.

So while Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) runs the household and keeps the film director, Jack Barber (Hugh Dancy) happy, the majority of the family travel to meet the son and window of the mysterious Monsieur Montmirail.  To meet and smooth the transition of the villa, and perhaps find out why the villa was left to the Dowager in the first place.

I want to say I was bored throughout the entire screening, but there was just enough wry humour to keep me engaged.

When Lady Mary utters, ‘I suppose he wasn’t just a lunatic,’ about the now deceased, Monsieur Montmirail, I had to chuckle.

And, ‘They’re very French, aren’t they…  The French,’ remarks, Mr. Carson (Jim Carter).

The ‘potty’ humour made the borderline ridiculous, endearing.

Fans with a previous history with the franchise will no doubt be chuffed to see another chapter about the (many) residents of Downton Abbey.

For my taste, Downton Abbey: A New Era was not exciting at all, it turns out – but an agreeable watch with a few chuckles: yawn.

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.

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