An aged hotelier recounts his life story. If Keaton and Kubrick ever teamed up to make a deadpan farce prequel to The Shining, then this’d be it. Beautiful to look it, gorgeously designed and presented, with a cast in depth happy to help out. Lots of fun, basically, with Ralph Fiennes on fine form.
Here’s the trailer.
The multiple lives (and names) of a young man. Meta riff on the Dickens novel which pretty much all hangs together. A touch too episodic – not much by way of narrative drive – but that’s all part of the pleasure, even if it means there’s some emotional distance from the characters. Everyone is obviously enjoying themselves.
Zombies take over a small US town. Deadpan comedy-horror with a few meta touches. Not all of it works, and the approach is wry rather than outright funny, but there are some good ideas and images, and everyone involved seems to be having fun.
A dancer joins a troupe that’s a front for a coven. Startling remake of the Argento original that while not having the bravura dream logic of the original is nevertheless an unsettling and well-sustained piece of work. Respectful enough to pay homage, but different enough to be its own beast.
A damned occultist battles a demonic attempt to take over the Earth. Fun apocalyptic fantasy-horror-action hybrid, loosely based on the Hellblazer comic. Lots to enjoy, though over-reliance on CG softens the film’s impact.
A vain medic discovers new powers after searching for a cure for lost surgical skills. Satisfactory origin story which suffers from having its source material plundered by other popcult properties, tho gets revenge by borrowing world-bending imagery from Inception.
Fancy a second opinion? Here’s Lemonsquirtle’s take.
A South Korean girl fights to keep her pet super-pig from the hands of a multinational corporation. Utterly enthralling ET/Pete’s Dragon variant for adults, drawing on Gilliam, Jeunet et Caro, early Besson, Buster Keaton and Studio Ghibli, yet is an original too.
255 Review 