Freddy vs. Jason

Year of Release:  2003
Director:  Ronny Yu
Screenplay:  Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, based on characters created by Wes Craven and Victor Miller
Starring:  Monica Keener, Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Jason Ritter, Chris Marquette, Kelly Rowland, Lochlyn Munro, Katharine Isabelle
Running Time:  93 minutes
Genre:  Horror, action, comedy

The spirit of child-killer Freddy Krueger (Englund) is trapped in Hell and can't get out.  The children of Springwood have forgotten about him, thereby denying him the ability to enter their dreams.  Krueger decides to recruit the aid of serial killer Jason Voorhees (Kirzinger).  Posing as Jason's beloved mother, Freddy convinces him to go to Springwood and start murdering the local teenagers, in the hope that the residents will start to remember, and fear, Freddy again, and thusly give him back his power.  The plan works perfectly, but now that Freddy doesn't need Jason anymore, he realises that he hadn't thought how to stop Jason.  Didn't think that one through, Freddy!  For his part, Jason is too busy enjoying his favourite pastime, and has no intention of returning to Hell.  Meanwhile, a rapidly diminishing group of teenagers have to work out how to survive and stop both of them.

Back in the 1980s, Freddy Krueger (of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films) and Jason Voorhees (of the Friday the 13th films) were the titans of screen horror, as the number of sequels in both franchises mounted up, alongside TV shows, video games, books, comics, and a deluge of other merchandising, fans were keen to see them both go head to head, and initial plans for Freddy vs. Jason were discussed as early as 1987.  However, at the time, the characters were owned by different studios, and they couldn't agree on a story, as well as the fact that both franchises started to decline in popularity.  The resulting film is fairly mediocre, with most of the best scenes being before the titular showdown.  The problem is that neither of the characters can really be hurt.  They stab, slash, punch, burn, kick and drown each other, as well as being thrown around like ragdolls, without apparently being hurt much at all, for what feels at times like an eternity.  Also it's kind of hard to care.  Robert Englund, as ever, seems to have a great time as Freddy Krueger, and adds some much needed vest to the proceedings.  Ken Kirzinger as Jason (taking over from Kane Hodder the actor most identified in the role) has little to do but shamble around.  The teen characters (which include Monica Keener from Dawson's Creek, singer Kelly Rowland from Destiny's Child, and Katharine Isabelle from Ginger Snaps (2001)) are given some attempts at backstory early on, but by the second half of the film are little more than spectators.  The performances range from passable to abysmal.
This is really aimed at fans of the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street films, and they probably will enjoy it.  Newcomers, however, are likely to be completely lost. To be fair, it has a few cool scenes and special effects, and some of the jokes are quite funny, if you are in the right frame of mind for it, you can have fun with this one.  It's a bad movie, but is kind of fun in a bad "B" movie way.

Jason (Ken Kirzinger) and Freddy (Robert Englund) are badly in need of a good plumber in Freddy vs. Jason.               

Happy Death Day

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Christopher B. Landon
Screenplay:  Scott Lobdell
Starring:  Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine
Running Time:  107 minutes
Genre:  Horror, comedy, slasher

Obnoxious college student Tree (Rothe) wakes up on the morning of her birthday in a stranger's dorm room.  She goes through the rest of a pretty miserable day, being as horrible as possible to everyone around her.  Until the evening when she is murdered by a masked killer.  However, Tree wakes up in the stranger's dorm room, and soon realises that she is being forced to relive the day of her murder, over and over again, until she can stop the killer, and survive the day.  And you thought your birthdays were bad!

The obvious comparisons to make are with the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day (which has the same concept of a person being forced to relive the same day over and over again - and which is namechecked in the film) and with the 1996 film Scream (with which it shares a similar sense of humour).  The film starts slowly and it takes some time to really get into it, but once it gets there it is funny and exciting.  Jessica Rothe gives a fantastic performance in a difficult central role.  She plays a very unlikeable character, but gives her enough depth, so that the audience goes along with her through her journey. There are elements in the film which are introduced but not really followed through on, such as her relationship with her father and what happened to her mother.  Some horror fans may be disappointed because it is neither particularly scary or particularly gruesome, but there are plenty of shocks and an intriguing mystery.  The film does a good job of building and maintaining the mystery, and the scenes were Tree conducts her investigations are very funny.  The killer's creepy baby mask is memorable, and it's a good film for people who may enjoy the odd scary movie, but are not big horror fans.       

Look behind you:  Jessica Rothe in Happy Death Day

"The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt

Year of Publication:  2014
Number of Pages:  864
Genre:  Literary fiction

In New York City, thirteen year old Theo Decker, cared for by his devoted single mother, visits an art museum with his mother, when they are caught up in a terrorist attack on the museum.  Theo's mother is killed in the attack, but Theo is physically unhurt.  Naturally however he is deeply traumatised by the experience and, almost without realising it, leaves with the famous 1654 painting The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius.  The novel follows Theo throughout the next fourteen difficult years of his life.  As he moves back and forth from New York to Las Vegas to Amsterdam, the painting remains a constant in his life, his one connection to his beloved mother, it becomes his touchstone, his obsession, his salvation and possibly his nemesis.

This is the third novel by acclaimed American novelist Donna Tartt, who made a huge splash with her debut book The Secret History in 1992.  It is written in beautiful descriptive prose, and is an intriguing coming of age story, which also blends in elements of a thriller, as well as an examination of the healing and redemptive power of art.  However, as you would expect from a book of this length, it doesn't all work.  The plot hinges on a number of quite fantastic coincidences, and some elements of the book don't seem to fit in with the rest of the novel at all.  However, despite this it is a fine, important novel.      

Vivre sa vie

Year of Release:  1962
Director:  Jean-Luc Godard
Screenplay:  Jean-Luc Godard and Marcel Sacotte
Starring:  Anna Karina, Sady Rebbot, Andre S. Labarthe, Guylaine Schlumberger, Gerard Hoffman
Running Time:  83 minutes
Genre:  Drama

This French film tells the story of Nana (Karina), a young Parisian woman, dreams of becoming an actress, but is stuck working as a sales assistant in a record store.  Struggling financially, she decides to start working as a prostitute.

Released as My Life to Live in North America and It's My Life in Britain, this is one of the greatest and most accessible works of prolific director Jean-Luc Godard, one of the founding members of the French New Wave.  The film is constructed as twelve very short episodes in Nana's life (each preceded by a title card).  It uses point of view shots, captions, experiments with sound and narration, and a semi-documentary feel.  The depiction of sex work is not glamorised or celebrated, but neither is it explicitly judged.  Despite some very bleak subject matter the film is lively, and always exciting.  There can be seen to be some criticism of the consumerism of 1960s Paris, where everything can be bought and sold, including human beings.  However, the film really works due to the luminous performance of Anna Karina, who was married to Godard at the time.  Appearing in nearly every scene of the film, frequently staring directly at the camera, she gives a startling performance that you will remember for a very long time.   

Anna Karina in Vivre sa vie

Everybody Wants Some!!

Year of Release:  2016
Director:  Richard Linklater
Screenplay:  Richard Linklater
Starring:  Blake Jenner, Zoey Deutch, Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Glen Powell, Wyatt Russell
Running Time:  116 minutes
Genre:  Comedy, drama

The film is set in September, 1980, at a Texas university and is set over the three days before class starts.  Freshman Jake (Jenner) arrives on a baseball scholarship and movers into the house that he will be sharing with other members of the baseball team.  Over the course of the resulting few days, they banter, bond, insult each other, play pranks, party, get stoned, get drunk and try to pick up girls.

Richard Linklater is a talented and prolific filmmaker who successfully moves between experimental films such as Waking Life (2001) and mainstream studio fare such as School of Rock (2003).  However, he is possibly best identified with meandering, dialogue-driven films such as Before Sunrise (1995) and the award-winning Boyhood (2014).  Everybody Wants Some!! can be seen as a follow up to his 1993 film Dazed and Confused, which is set over the last day of high school in 1976, and the two have a very similar feel.  Linklater has also said that he considers it a "spiritual sequel" to Boyhood, with Everybody Wants Some!! picking up from where Boyhood ends.  Nothing much really happens in this film, and there isn't really any story, it's guys partying and having a great time.  There is a strong nostalgic feel to it.  Linklater wrote the script based on his own experiences of playing baseball in college, and the film unambiguously celebrates these jock frat boys and there are no real consequences to any of their actions, and they are depicted throughout as loveable japesters.
It is worth pointing out the film's depiction of female characters.  There is only one prominent female character and she doesn't really appear much until towards the end, and women are depicted mainly as love interests, or for the guys to hit on, and it has to be said that some of the guys don't really have great attitudes towards women, to put it mildly. 
It is maybe not one of Linklater's best, but it is a funny, warm and amiable film, with a great soundtrack, full of classic rock.

Blake Jenner, Tyler Hoechlin and Ryan Guzman in Everybody Wants Some!!

The Ritual

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  David Bruckner
Screenplay:  Joe Barton, based on the novel The Ritual by Adam Nevill
Starring:  Rafe Spall, Robert James-Collier, Arsher Ali, Sam Troughton
Running Time:  94 minutes
Genre:  Horror

Five middle-aged friends, Luke (Spall), Hutch (James-Collier), Phil (Ali), Dom (Troughton) and Rob (Paul Reid), meet up in a London pub to plan a guy's holiday.  Immediately afterwards Rob is killed in a liquor store robbery.  Six months later, the other four friends are on a hiking holiday in Sweden, partly as a tribute to Rob.  However, the group are unprepared and inexperienced with wilderness survival.  As tempers fray, the weather takes a turn for the worse and one of the group suffers a twisted ankle.  The guys decide that, instead of continuing with their planned two day hike, they will take a shortcut through a thick, dark forest.  Now, anyone who has ever seen a horror film knows that this is a big mistake.  The men soon realise their mistake when they get hopelessly lost and discover a freshly killed animal carcass suspended in the trees, and strange runic markings carved into the tree trunks.  Spending the night in a run-down cabin in the forest makes the bad situation a whole lot worse.

Based on a successful novel from British horror author Adam Nevill, this film never really works, mainly because the four central characters are all pretty unlikeable.  There isn't much backstory given to them, and they spend most of their time bickering and trading apparently jokey insults at each other, but it is hard to see how they became friends in the first place, because most of the time they don't even seem to like each other.  It does have something to say about how men find it so difficult to open up about their problems and anxieties even among their closest friends, and also how male friendship often works, with an apparent superficial, light and sometimes almost cruel surface, but with a lot of deeper undercurrents hidden beneath it all.  It also deals with the very real but inevitable horror of simply getting older.  It's worth pointing out that this is almost an entirely male film, the only women on screen appear very briefly towards the end.  After a brutal pre-credits robbery sequence, the film moves into a quieter tone of a Blair Witch-style lost in the woods film, until kicking into high gear for the climax.  The thing that stalks the group is mostly hidden, you hear it's roars and see the trees shaking, alongside the occasional dismembered corpses of it's victims strung up in the trees, with occasional half-seen glimpses of a large creature, until it's revealed in all it's CGI glory towards the end.  The climax feels kind of rushed.  It's not a very scary film, and it is kind of frustrating because despite some good sequences and ideas, the whole just didn't really work for me, and it felt like it should have been so much better.

From left to right:  Robert James-Collier, Rafe Spall, Asher Ali and Sam Troughton             

"Sleeping Beauties" by Stephen King and Owen King

Year of Publication:  2017
Number of Pages:  715
Genre:  Horror, fantasy

One day all the women in the world start to fall asleep as normal, but they do not wake up.  Instead, as soon as they fall asleep they grow a web-like cocoon , and react with mindless, murderous violence if the webbing is cut or broken.  In the small town of Dooling, West Virginia, a strange woman appears who has superhuman powers of strength and healing, has knowledge about people that she could not possibly possess and, most of all, can sleep and wake as normal.  As a rapidly decreasing number of women stay awake to combat "Aurora" (as the mysterious syndrome is called), men face up to a world without women.  Meanwhile, the women wake up to a strange world, entirely without men.  Can the women find their way back?  More to the point, do they want to?

This is a pretty gripping novel, it focuses mainly on the small town of Dooling, and the women's prison in the town.  It comes from a simple, but quite fascinating premise:  How would men be in a  world without women?  And what would a world without men be like?  It's a timely novel, which does not shy away from contemporary resonance (some books wear there politics on their sleeves, this one pretty much has it on the front of it's tee-shirt).  However while it is thought-provoking, it also succeeds in being fun.  despite it's length it keeps you reading.  It's dark, funny and suspenseful with a range of interesting and mostly likeable, although there are a fair few straight-forward villains.  Of course, Stephen King is the most popular writer of our time, and here he teams up with his son, Owen, although the novel's voice is pretty consistent, and reads throughout like a Stephen King novel - however I have never read any of Owen King's other works, and so I do not know what his style is.  Some of the storylines in the book are unsatisfying, and there are a few plotlines that seem to be building up early and are then abandoned.  However, this is a good book and well worth your time.

Blade Runner 2049

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Denis Villeneuve
Screenplay:  Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, from a story by Hampton Fancher, based on characters from the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Starring:  Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri, Lennie James, Dave Bautista, Jared Leto
Running Time:  163 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction

This is the long-awaited sequel to Blade Runner (1982), one of the most influential science-fiction movies of all time.  The film is set in 2049, where a series of environmental disasters have made the use of biologically engineered artificial humans known as "replicants" a necessity for humanity's survival.  However some of the older model replicants have not integrated and they are hunted down and executed (or "retired") by police "Blade Runner" units.  The film focuses on K. (Gosling), a Blade Runner, and I won't say anything else because it would be something of a spoiler.

This is possibly one of the most visually stunning films that I have ever seen.  It is absolutely beautiful, moving from neon-drenched cityscapes to desolate, grey wasteland, to burnished orange deserts, all swathed in mist, dust, rain and snow.  However, as with the original film, this is a demanding watch, because it is very slow, and long.  It moves at it's own rhythm, and if you can go along with that and surrender yourself to it's spell then it really works.  As with the original the characters tend to get washed out in the visuals.  Ryan Gosling plays his lead role in a similar manner to his role in Drive (2011), Ana de Armas gives the film some much needed heart as Gosling's hologram girlfriend, and it is worth pointing out that, while Harrison Ford does reprise his role from the first film, he does not appear until very late in this film and has little more than an extended cameo.  In fact, Harrison Ford's appearance is something of a spoiler, but he is featured very heavily on the poster and all the publicity for the film.
In many ways, I prefer this to the original, the storyline is intriguing, with an interesting central mystery, and it still tackles the Big Issues about the nature of humanity.  While the length and pace might put off some viewers, I think that this film will find it's audience sooner or later, and there are images and scenes that I think will become iconic in the future.   
See this film, and see it on the biggest screen possible. This is dark, beautiful and intelligent science-fiction.

Ana de Armas and Ryan Gosling in Blade Runner 2049       

Goodbye Christopher Robin

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Simon Curtis
Screenplay:  Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Simon Vaughan
Starring:  Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Kelly Macdonald, Will Tilston, Alex Lawther, Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Running Time:  107 minutes
Genre:  Period drama, biopic

Playwright AA Milne (Gleeson), traumatised by his experiences in the First World War, has difficulty relating to his socialite wife Daphne (Robbie) and his young son Christopher Robin (Tilston as a child, Lawther as an adult).  He also has trouble restarting his writing career.  Moving to a rural area in southern England with his family and Christopher Robin's nanny (Macdonald).  Milne becomes inspired by his son playing with his stuffed toys and starts writing the "Winnie-the Pooh" stories.  However the success of the books comes at terrible personal costs for Milne and Christopher Robin.

This film about the creation of the beloved "Winnie-the-Pooh" stories is not such a sickly-sweet confection as it might have been, and as it might look from some of the advertising.  This is actually quite dark, AA Milne suffers from severe post traumatic stress disorder, he and his wife cannot really relate to Christopher Robin (it's hinted that Daphne didn't really want a child, but thought that a baby might cheer up her husband) and it is really his nanny that raises the child (although I think, at the time, that was fairly standard for families of the Milne's wealth and social status).  Most of all, Christopher Robin really suffers from the immense fame that the huge success of the "Winnie-the Pooh" stories conferred upon him.  However, this is a very beautiful film, full of summer meadows and dappled sunlight shining through trees, and does manage to capture some of the magic of Milne's work.  The performances are good from all concerned, with Will Tilston in particular affecting as the young Christopher Robin.  In the end, the film becomes incredibly moving.

Domhnall Gleeson and Will Tilston in Goodbye Christopher Robin