Review #1,454: 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald' (2018)

Aside from Peter Jackson's epic Lord of the Rings trilogy (the less said about his more recent adaptation of The Hobbit, the better), no cinematic journey into the realms of the fantastical has captured the imagination of audiences in recent years quite as much as J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, a cash-making juggernaut for both Warner Bros. and the author herself. When the franchise came to a conclusion in 2011, it was never going to be away from our screens for very long, and the 'Wizarding World' universe was expanded in 2016 with the surprisingly charming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Like Harry Potter, Beasts managed to find a nice balance between wand-swishing set-pieces, enduring us to a new set of compelling characters, and building a tangible new world for it all to take place in. And with Eddie Redmayne's Newt Scamander - a shy and awkward David Attenborough type - at the centre of it all, the pieces were in place for an engrossing - and different - saga to get out teeth into.

The delicate balance found by Rowling and director David Yates the first time around is sadly nowhere to be found in this follow-up, The Crimes of Grindelwald. This is part two of a five-part story, so introductions are brushed aside in favour of plot, plot and some more plot. The first hour is taken up by bringing this new group of characters back into the fold, finding Newt grounded by the Ministry of Magic following his shenanigans last time around, just as a new threat rears its ugly face in the form of Johnny Depp's muggle-hating Grindelwald. The bad wizard is searching for the troubled Credence (Ezra Miller), who has emerged in Paris with a circus performer called Nagini (Clauia Kim), but Auror Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) is already on the case. It seems as though everybody is searching for Credence. Even the young Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), who is mysteriously reluctant to face his old friend-gone-bad himself, tries to convince Newt to go to Paris in his stead. Muggle Kowalski (Dan Fogler) is also back with his memory mainly in tact, as is his girlfriend Queenie (Alison Sudol), who is struggling to deal with a Ministry ban on Wizard-Muggle relationships.

The Crimes of Grindelwald throws everything it can into the mix: a rain-soaked battle in the air, Newt caught up in no less than three romantic entanglements, a detour to Hogwarts, and more name-drops and Easter eggs than you can shake a stick at. It's an unfathomable wall of information, punctured by an occasional set-piece that only truly come to life when the titular (and frustratingly sidelined) beasts are involved. The Harry Potter films dodged this bullet by allowing the audience to grow into this world, and often grow up with the characters, but Fantastic Beasts goes all out without really justifying its flagrant disregard for coherency, or earning the right to take such an approach. Although he is often pushed out of the spotlight by the many side-plots occurring, Redmayne just about holds it all together with another endearingly twitchy performance, and Law, who combines some of Michael Gambon mannerisms with a more youthful swagger, proves to be a shrewd bit of casting. Ultimately, this follow-up is too busy moving the chess pieces into place to focus on character, and many are pushed into the background as a result. There are great revelations, but after two hours of trying to keep up with who's who and what's what, they don't have much impact. It isn't enough to derail the series completely, but I'll have a hard time remembering where the hell we are by the time the third entry rolls around.


Directed by: David Yates
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Johnny Depp, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, Jude Law, Callum Turner, Claudia Kim
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,278: 'Logan Lucky' (2017)

When Steven Soderbergh announced four years ago that he was giving up the director's gig to focus on TV, did anyone actually believe him? There was a cry of sadness from critics and audiences alike, but nothing about his announcement felt like it would last for very long. How could a man so prolific in recent years and as equally comfortable tackling a star-studded major release as he is with low-budget indies distract himself away from the temptation of the director's chair? As expected, Soderbergh is back for his first film since 2013's Behind the Candelabra, with a heist comedy described as Ocean's Eleven for the NASCAR crowd, and more amusingly, Ocean's 7-11. Logan Lucky doesn't find the director on unfamiliar ground, but it's a welcome reminder of how fine a storyteller he is.

The Logan family curse stretches back as far as the remaining members can recall, and things look to be heading downhill for Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) when he is sacked from his construction job and informed by his ex-wife (Katie Holmes) that she plans to take their daughter and her new husband miles away to Lynchburg. Jimmy's brother Clyde (Adam Driver) has returned from Iraq minus an arm and a sense of humour, and only hairdresser sister Mellie (Riley Keough) appears to have dodged the curse. Enough is enough for the once-promising footballer Jimmy, who plans to end the curse once and for all by robbing the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Key to the success of the job is colourful safe-cracker Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), but he currently sits in jail five months away from his release. With a few tricks of his own up his sleeve - and a comprehensive list of dos and don'ts stuck to his fridge - Jimmy aims to break Joe out, pull off the heist, and return him to his cell before anyone notices he's gone.

With fantastic performances all round from a hugely talented cast and a witty, pacy script by Rebecca Blunt, Logan Lucky is one of the most effortlessly watchable movies of 2017. The film is predictably stolen by an off-the-leash Daniel Craig who, with a buzz-cut of peroxide-blonde hair and a drawl so ridiculous it actually works in favour of the character, seems happy to be free of the high-octane stunts and extensive promotion tours that come with the role of James Bond. There are also nice smaller turns from the likes of Katherine Waterston as a good-natured nurse and former schoolmate of Jimmy, Dwight Yoakam as a prison warden eager to avoid any bad publicity, Sebastian Stan as a disgruntled, yoga-freak NASCAR driver, and Hilary Swank as a shrewd FBI agent. There are bad performances too, namely from Joe's idiotic brothers (played by Brian Gleeson and Jack Quaid) who aren't nearly as funny as the film believes they are, and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane donning a distracting English accent and even more distracting hair-and-moustache combo.

It's fun, breezy and confidant in all the ways Ocean's Eleven was, only here the characters are more dim-witted and less easy on the eye. It's happy to dabble in the kind of stereotype dreamt up by outsiders, and while this helps with the appeal of Craig's larger-than-life lunatic, it also means that much of the comedy is derived from people saying and doing stupid things. Every now and then however, Soderbergh reminds us why he has been so missed, even when he's dishing out mid-table fare like Logan Lucky. Few directors can bring a heist to life with such detail and excitement - he doesn't let you in on the plan, so we have no idea just how this will pan out - and even fewer could make the site of a prosthetic arm being sucked up into a huge vacuum quite so hilarious. But the movie's high-point comes when Jimmy arrives at the last minute to witness his daughter sing John Denver's 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' to an enamoured pageant audience, and heart-strings are unexpectedly tugged. It's a shame that more of the movie can't quite live up to that scene's standards and helped to gloss over the other flaws, but for now it's certainly a "welcome back, Steven Soderbergh."


Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Riley Keough, Seth MacFarlane, Katherine Waterston, Hilary Swank, Dwight Yoakam, Katie Holmes
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,246: 'Alien: Covenant' (2017)

Ridley Scott's ambitious but ultimately flawed Prometheus attempted to somewhat distance itself from the Alien franchise, or at least the silly money-spinner it had become. While very much set within the Alien universe, Prometheus made a crack at some big themes, particularly man's obsession with meeting its maker, but ended up leaving us with far more questions than answers, with Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and the decapitated synthetic David (Michael Fassbender) leaving to find the Engineer's planet to find the answers to the very questions we are left with. After the success of the brilliant The Martian, Scott seems eager to get back into the familiar stalk-and-eat/impregnate routine of his genre re-defining Alien. Indeed, Alien: Covenant is a direct sequel to prequel Prometheus, but Scott seems more interested in straight-up horror than further exploring the deeper themes of its predecessor.

It's 11 years since the Prometheus expedition, and the spaceship Covenant is drifting through space on its way to a distant planet that its crew and passengers hope to colonise. Two thousand colonists lie in stasis, and only the crew are awoken when a stellar neutrino burst almost destroys the ship. As repairs go underway, they pick up a faint radio transmission from an uncharted planet, which sounds suspiciously like John Denver. Following the death of the ship's captain (played by James Franco, who appears for roughly 30 seconds), the newly-promoted Oram (Billy Crudup), against the wishes of second-in-command Daniels (Katherine Waterston), makes the decision to follow the signal in the hope of finding another habitable planet. When they touch down, they find an alien ship, a sea of extraterrestrial corpses, and the planet's seemingly lone inhabitant, the long-haired synthetic David. Soon enough, a couple of crew members become infected by alien spores, and the rest you already know.

1979's Alien, which still has the power to terrify, has little in way of plot or alien action. Its power comes from the simplicity in which its story unfolds, and the fantastic ensemble of actors bringing to life the human interaction between those brief moments of sheer menace. They talked about shitty working conditions and bad pay, and felt like actual people rather than just the clothes they wore. There was something fascinating about watching these blue-collar types, hundreds of years into the future, and seeing that we haven't changed one bit. In Alien: Covenant, characters are defined by the things they say about themselves or their accessories. One of the first things Oram reveals is that he is a man of faith, as if the audience is too stupid to work out for themselves that the story essentially represents humanity's search for God. Chief pilot Tennessee (Danny McBride) is a cowboy because he wears a cowboy hat and, well, his name is Tennessee. Daniels rocks a white vest and a tough, slightly sad demeanour, so we instantly think of Ripley without any actual character development required.

The film spends most of its time having the characters explain the plot to each other. At one point, a character proclaims that so little of what is happening makes sense, and I refuse to believe I'm the only one to spot the glaring irony in this statement. Characters are introduced and killed off before we had the chance to care about them, while most of the audience will still be trying to figure out how all this 'black goo' fits into the overarching story. Thank the Engineers then, for the presence of Michael Fassbender. He was the best thing in Prometheus, and it's no different here. Doubling as both the American-accented synthetic upgrade Walter and his unhinged, English-accented predecessor David, his scenes are the film's eeriest. Scenery is chewed, certainly, and there is a ridiculous, homo-erotically charged moment I won't spoil, but it's only during these moments that Covenant doesn't feel like a re-tread of every other Alien movie there's been, only done worse. Covenant's main problem is that it is trying to explain and expand on a mythos that doesn't require it. In Alien, the alien arrived without explanation and that was part of its appeal. It was a slimy, unpredictable unknown, and perhaps we now know too much.


Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir
Country: UK/USA/Australia/New Zealand/Canada

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,164: 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' (2016)

Despite the enormous financial success of the eight-part Harry Potter series, adapted from J.K. Rowling's equally successful books, they never seemed to reach the heights of greatness that their box-office receipts would suggest. The main problem the few directors chosen to adapt the novels faced was having to condense the increasingly bulky word count into a coherent 2 hour plus movie. They were never anything less than fun and enchanting, but the films suffered from cramming in too many plot-lines and character backgrounds, and often felt like they were frantically lunging from one scene to the next. With Potter's time at Hogwarts now over, many wondered where Rowling would go next, and if she would even return to world of wizards, witches and house-elves at all.

To the fan's delight, she chose to keep her first screenplay within the same universe as Hagrid and Voldemort, but instead focus on a character frequently mentioned in the books as an author and good friend to headmaster Dumbledore. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was the name of the textbook Harry, Hermione and Ron would often brood over, and Newt Scamander the man behind it. The development of this revered encyclopaedia of the many weird and wonderful creatures unknown to mere muggles is the focus of Rowling's first movie attempt, and the action jumps back in time to 1920s New York to find the young Newt - played with a delightful hunched eccentricity by Eddie Redmayne - discovering a world completely different the one in his native Britain.

He is in the U.S. to raise awareness of the need to protect the beloved creatures of the world, and comes with a magical bag stuffed with the oddities. But much like the dangerous world Harry Potter grew up in 70-odd years later, the wizarding community live in fear of an evil wizard named Gellert Grindelwald (I won't spoil who plays him), who has recently murdered several aurors all over Europe. However, Newt has more pressing issues when some of his fantastic beasts escape, and his suitcase accidentally ends up in the hands of bumbling wannabe-baker and muggle ('no-maj' in American) Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler). Teaming up with recently-demoted auror Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), Newt must round up the creatures wreaking havoc while convincing the Magical Congress that his pets aren't to blame for several unexplained deaths happening across the city.

There's certainly a lot going on in this movie, and early on it feels like Rowling is asking a hell of a lot of the audience in taking in this new ensemble of new characters and a whole new kind of wizarding world (wizard-muggle relationships are strictly banned here). Yet the story quickly falls into place, and Rowling delights in creating a wonderful array of genuinely fantastic beasts, each with their own unique look, quirks and special abilities. With a hushed voice and gently inquisitive personality, Newt instantly brings to mind Sir David Attenborough, one of the greatest human beings on this planet. His briefcase is like a tardis, containing an entire zoo of exotic creatures, each with their own habitat to suit their needs. When Newt takes the awestruck Jacob for a grand tour, it's almost like watching an episode of Planet Earth, and this use of commentary on the state of species' endangerment in the real world adds a bit of depth to the story.

Although Alfonso Cuaron certainly made the best entry into the Potter film franchise, David Yates has been the steady hand to guide the series since number 5, so it's of no surprise that he was chosen to take the reins again. Like before, he brings a flair to the magical moments, and the special effects constantly impress (while they may not be up to the recent Jungle Book's standards). Yet the best scenes are during the quieter moments, and in particular a scene at dinner involving a dazed Jacob and Tina's sexy sister Queenie (Alison Sudol), and their charming flirtations. Newt's friendship with Jacob forms the emotional backbone of the story, and Fogler damn near steals the entire film. There's also fine support from Colin Farrell as a shady Congress official, and Samantha Morton and Ezra Miller as a fanatical mother and son rallying no-majs against wizards. While the climax may descend slightly into fight-the-CGI-fart-cloud nonsense, it just feels good to be back in Rowling's world again.


Directed by: David Yates
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Dan Fogler, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Samantha Morton, Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #986: 'Steve Jobs' (2015)

Since his death in 2011, the world - including those who had never heard of the turtle-neck-sporting tech genius and innovator - has come to learn that the great Steve Jobs was in fact a massive dick. Like every great man, the flaws in his personality have been forgiven or excused in favour of a 'tortured genius' label, but this has not stopped various movies and documentaries cropping up to try and paint a true-to-life picture. Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs, starring Michael Fassbender in the title role, likes to think that his humanity emerged with his advancing years, as he went about literally changing the way we live our lives.

If you're someone who proudly boasts about the lack of a Facebook profile or prefers to stare out of the window during a bus-ride as opposed to staring open-mouthed at your phone, then the tech-worship and subtle hints at the innovations Jobs would go on to create may completely pass you by. I like to think I'm one of those people, but I felt like I may as well be carrying a spear and wearing a bear-skin when the 3G disappeared from my phone the other day. The film's narrative disregards the traditional biopic formula in favour of three 30 minute-plus acts, each set just before the launch of three of Jobs most famous creations - the Apple Macintosh in 1984, the NeXT computer in 1988, and the game-changing iMac in 1998.

Throughout the years, a set of key characters mingle and/or class with Jobs. Headstrong marketing executive Joan Hoffman (Kate Winslet) tries to bring the best out of her boss, but is visibly appalled when he repeatedly denies that he is the father of Lisa (played by Makenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo and Perla Haney-Jardine at various ages), often to her face. Old friend Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) asks him to acknowledge the efforts of the Apple II team during his presentation, much to Jobs' disgust, but fails when Jobs is fired by Apple after the failure of the Macintosh. His boss John Sculley (Jeff Daniels) finds himself blamed for Jobs' sacking in the media when he repeatedly stuck up for him and warned him of the repercussions of failing to lower the Macintosh's price.

Fassbender, although sharing little physical resemblance to the man, is outstanding, playing Jobs with a faint (and ironic) disconnection to the world and little grasp of how he is perceived by others. Aaron Sorkin, who is on script duties, goes overtime with the fast and jargon-heavy talk, and the film is rich with his signature corridor-pacing conversations. The decision to condense his key years into three acts offers a fresh take on the usual incident-by-incident biographies, but it also means that characters are ushered into scenes unnaturally to resolve their personal conflict, with Wozniak especially reduced to a conduit for the audience. Boyle's direction is refreshingly unflashy when compared to the senses-rattling Trance (2013), and instead allows his actors and their quick-fire dialogue to breathe freely. It certainly falls short the other biopic of a technological innovator - The Social Network (2010) - but, despite its flaws, it still manages to find a soul within its obnoxious bully.

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston, John Ortiz

Country: USA/UK

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #893: 'Inherent Vice' (2014)

Following in the footsteps of Raymond Chandler and the Coen brothers' Chandler homage The Big Lebowski (1998), Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel of the same name, Inherent Vice, has its permanently perplexed gumshoe trying to navigate his way through a labyrinthine plot that never really makes sense. Joaquin Phoenix's mutton-chopped 'Doc' Sportello is rarely too far away from his next joint in a hungover 1970's, where free love and hippydom is starting to fade and Richard Nixon reigns in the White House. The plot plays second fiddle to the hazy atmosphere and distinct sense of place, so if you find yourself constantly scratching your head as the story 'unfolds', it really doesn't matter.

If Paul Thomas Anderson's work is noticeably divided by 2007's masterpiece There Will Be Blood, when his work seemed to transform from absorbing, oddball ensembles (and even an Adam Sandler comedy) into sweeping, completely hypnotic works of art, Inherent Vice is a curious combination of the two era's. While never spilling over into full-blown comedy, the film makes frequent use of slapstick and moments of surreal absurdity, all delivered with perfect comic timing by its extremely talented cast. However, there's something else going on; a bigger picture that Anderson never really grasps (and doesn't really need to), and an eeriness that may or may not be fuelled by Doc's drug-induced paranoia and bewilderment.

The story kicks off when Doc is visited by old flame Shasta Hepworth (Katherine Waterston), who informs Doc of her affair with real estate developer Mickey Z. Wolfmann (Eric Roberts) and a possible plot to kidnap and commit him to a mental asylum. Doc's investigations force him into constant conflict with former colleague Lt. Detective 'Bigfoot' Bjornsen (Josh Brolin), a buzzcut-donning hippy-hater, who assists Doc with the news that Wolfmann has disappeared without a trace. Doc is also tasked with locating two others - a member of the Aryan Brotherhood who owes money to Black Guerilla Family member Tariq (Michael Kenneth Williams), and missing husband Coy (Owen Wilson), whose wife Hope (Jena Malone) has been informed of his death. The cases all may be linked by a mysterious boat known as the Golden Fang.

The head-scratching antics and doped-up conversations can cause extreme brain fatigue at times, so this is far from Anderson's best work. But Inherent Vice is still distinctly the work of Anderson, who wraps the film in an unpredictable and unsettling atmosphere at times, with the favouring of close-up's, a technique adopted in The Master (2012), heightening the deliriousness of the experience. The real find here is undoubtedly Waterston, whose twist on the femme fatale is played with a free-spirited seductiveness that would drive most men crazy. Phoenix is predictably convincing as the permanently red-eyed and well-meaning private dick, and Brolin overshadows anyone in the same room as him with his intense and idiosyncratic stiff, demanding waffles in bawled Spanish and deep-throating a popsicle much to Doc's disgust. Anyone expecting to be satisfied come the climax may be disappointed, and, like The Master, it can be difficult to love at times, but Inherent Vice is a one-of-a-kind experience; constantly baffling, funny, frustrating and beautiful.


Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Katherine Waterston, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Benicio Del Toro, Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, Joanna Newsom, Martin Short
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie