Film Beat

Art has always been a favoured method of processing personal experiences, be it love, fear or general existentialism. Recently, “ Hamnet ” tells the (somewhat fictional) story of William Shakespeare processing his grief through his writing. “Is This Thing On?” adapts the story of John Bishop who found an outlet through standup comedy following the breakdown of his marriage. The film is directed by Bradley Cooper and rather than being the big-swing Oscar-bait biopic of “Maestro” or the star-studded toe-tapping remake of “A Star is Born”, his third feature marks a more grounded effort. The result being too safe to be overly disappointing but not remarkable enough to be so memorable. My biggest disappointment with the film is that it starts out so boring. Alex (Will Arnett) is disillusioned, both in his life but also in his marriage with Tess (Laura Dern). Their relationship has grown stale and they find themselves accepting that that’s just how it is and that it’s best that they split am...

While alone in the woods, Agnes (Jesse Buckley) asks Will (Paul Mescal) to tell her a story to which he asks “What story would you like?”.   “Something that moves you”. With Hamnet, Chloe Zhao has created a beautifully moving depiction of grief and the healing, communal power of art. It's a tear jerker that some may pessimistically label as “Oscar Bait” but it deserves all the praise it gets. Based on the novel of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Zhao, Hamnet depicts the real-life tragedy of the loss of William’s Shakespeare’s son, that inspired the creation of one Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Will, a latin tutor, follows Agnes into the woods where she is summoning her Hawk. The two fall in love and soon Agnes is pregnant. Despite his family’s disdain, Will intends to marry Agnes, and with the blessing of her brother, Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn), he does so. Several years later, Will and Agnes are now expecting their third child - although it turns o...

Freida McFadden’s hit novel “The Housemaid” is the latest “BookTok” phenomenon to earn itself a feature film adaptation. Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”, “Spy”, “A Simple Favour”) is the director charged with adapting the best-selling thriller for the big screen, and given his track record of producing entertaining female-led movies, it would seem like a decent match; However while “The Housemaid” teases a camp, fun thriller, it only partially delivers on its promise, and instead largely stays well within the boundaries of your typical erotic thriller. Sydney Sweeney plays Millie Calloway, an out-of-work young woman with a checkered past who is living in her car and washing in public restrooms. She dons a fake pair of glasses to make her seem more respectable for an interview with Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried), who is on the search for a live-in housemaid. To her surprise, Millie is offered the job, and given the attic room to stay in. The next morning, Nina becomes unhinged and begins te...

We all know the formula. Girl meets Boy; everything seems to be going perfectly, then the old flame resurfaces and you’ve got yourself a good old fashioned “Love Triangle” - who will they choose? In recent years we’ve had a couple standout takes on this premise with “Challengers” and “Past Lives” springing to mind (actually these two were written by each half of the same couple). Now comes David Freyne’s take on the formula. The new A24 movie, Eternity, takes the love triangle and has it play out in the afterlife. Although that may sound like a more high concept fantasy movie, that is not how it should be perceived. Make no mistake, this is a romcom - and a good one. Eternity opens with Larry and Joan driving home for their family gender reveal party. Given the premise of the film, and Larry’s overly cautious driving style, I was fully expecting a jump-scare car crash in which at least one of the characters dies. Lo and behold, a car screeches towards the couple … and yet it screeches ...

Sometimes when life’s getting hectic and the the winter confines you to your living room (or even better - the cinema), what you need is a tight 90 minute escape served up by a masterful filmmaker. Steven Soderbergh may have released the perfect example of this earlier this year. Michael Fassbender,  Black Bag . Black Bag stars Michael Fassbender as George Woodhouse, a spy tasked with finding the traitor within his intelligence organisation and preventing said defector from releasing the top-secret software programme named “Severus”. Early in the film, George gathers the five suspects at his home for a dinner party. They include Naomi Harris as the in-house Psychiatrist, Zoe, Regé-Jean Page as the newly promoted James, Marisa Abela as the younger, naive Clarissa and Tom Burke as the outspoken Freddie. To make the dinner more interesting, the four guests are made up of two couples and have their relationships scrutinised by George at the table. To make the dinner even more interesti...

Wicked: For Good picks up the darker, deeper themes laid down by 2024’s “Wicked” while connecting to the original Wizard of Oz material more overtly. The film even opens with the construction of the iconic yellow brick road, which Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) disrupts by freeing the animals being used to lay the path. The Wicked Witch of the West has now been outcast and forced to live in solitude in a treehouse while she plans to expose the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) as a fraud and free the animals who see their freedom threatened by his reign. Meanwhile Glinda (Ariana Grande), continues to cosy up to the Wizard as her popularity as “Glinda the Good” grows. Jonathan Bailey returns as Fiyero, now engaged to be married to Glinda, torn between his duties as Captain of the Gale Force - the team tasked with capturing the wicked Witch of the West - and his moral obligation to stand up for Elphaba. Michelle Yeoh, as Madame Morrible, continues to do the Wizard’s dirty work by pedalling propagand...