Climax

Year of Release:  2018
Director:  Gaspar Noe
Screenplay:  Gaspar Noe
Starring:  Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, Souhelia Yacoub, Kiddy Smile, Claude Gajan Maull, Giselle Palmer
 Running Time:  96 minutes
Genre:  Horror, musical, drama

Winter, 1996:  A company of dancers preparing for an international tour, hole themselves up in an isolated,  abandoned boarding school in the middle of a thick forest.  After three days of productive rehearsal the dancers cut loose with a booze fuelled party, however someone spikes their sangria with LSD.  Soon the existing tensions within the group turn much more sinister, paranoia takes hold, and the dancers are soon trapped in a hallucinatory nightmare.

If you are familiar with enfant terrible Gaspar Noe's previous work: I Stand Alone (1998), Irreversible (2002), Enter the Void (2009) and Love (2015), than you will have an idea of what you are in for with Climax.  Noe tones down his typical sex and violence, although this is still graphic and disturbing.  The film opens with it's end-credit crawl, and has it's opening credit sequence at about the half-way point, there is bravura mobile camera  work, skewed angles (a lot of the film is intentionally shown upside down), point of view shots, odd title cards and weird colours.  Lit in red and shadows, a lot of the latter part of the film is almost incomprehensible.  It features extended dance sequences, which are very well choreographed, and then movies on to dark, intense horror.  While this is mild for Noe, this may be strong for anyone else. 

Hotel Artemis

Year of Release:  2018
Director:  Drew Pearce
Screenplay:  Drew Pearce
Starring:  Jodie Foster, Stirling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Tyree Henry, Jenny Slate, Zachary Quinto, Charlie Day, Dave Bautista
Running Time:  94 minutes
Genre: Action, science-fiction, crime

Los Angeles, 2028:  A full-scale citywide riot is in progress over the cost of privatised water.  Under cover of the riot a small crew try, unsuccessfully, to rob a bank.  During the escape, brothers Sherman (Brown) and Lev (Henry) are injured; Lev very seriously.  They go to the Hotel Artemis, a combination hotel and hospital that only treats criminals, run for 22 years by the Nurse (Foster) according to a strict set of rules, with assistant / enforcer Everest (Bautista).  Also in the hotel are racist, misogynist arms dealer Acapulco (Day) and contract killer Nice (Boutella).  The Nurse receives word that crime boss The Wolf King (Goldblum), who owns most of Los Angeles (including the Artemis), is on his way for emergency treatment.  Meanwhile the Nurse takes a huge risk, breaking her own rules to help cop Morgan (Slate), who has a connection to her past.

This is a stylish action, crime-thriller with futuristic overtones and a top-drawer cast.  Set almost entirely in the confines of the hotel, which looks like a decaying Old-Hollywood palace. Jodie Foster turns in a typically strong performance as the vulnerable but strong nurse, Jeff Goldblum has a lot of fun with a comparatively small role, and Sofia Boutella is memorable as the seductive, acrobatic killer.  Stirling K. Brown anchors the film as the essentially decent robber who will do anything to save his brother.  With the hotel given to frequent power outages, characters are often shown in shadowy pools of golden light and occasionally bathed in neon neon and bright red emergency lighting.  We are given glimpses of the nightmare world outside in the news bulletins the characters watch and the frequent explosions in the distance.  There are brief impressions of the world outside Los Angeles (a character talks about taking a chopper "south, over the Wall").  This is not a wall-to wall action film, it is more of a thriller, but when the action comes it is well-staged by debuting director Dave Pearce, and exciting.  The story has few surprises and, despite the big-name cast it looks like quite a low-budget film, but it is a lot of fun, and could become quite a cult film in years to come.

Stirling K. Brown and Sofia Boutella check in to Hotel Artemis     

Star Trek Beyond

Year of Release:  2016
Director:  Justin Lin
Screenplay:  Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, based on the television series Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Starring:  Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella
Running Time:  122 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction, action, adventure

This is the thirteenth film in the Star Trek franchise, and the third in the rebooted series that began with Star Trek (2009) and continued with Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).  In this film the Starship Enterprise is almost three years into it's five year mission and the crew are beginning increasingly fed up with life in deep space.  After docking at a space station, the Enterprise is sent off on a rescue mission into a uncharted nebula.  Unfortunately, it turns out to be a trap, when the ship is attacked by a vast horde of mysterious craft, led by the brutal Krall (Elba) who is looking for an ancient alien artifact on board the Enterprise.

This is a hugely entertaining slice of science-fiction action.  The special effects are spectacular, and the action moves along well, but still leaves room for character moments, and humour.  It's more of an ensemble film than some previous Star Trek efforts, rather than focusing on the Kirk (Pine) and Spock (Quinto) relationship, it broadens the canvas by dividing the main crew up for most of the film, thereby meaning that they all have their own subplots to play out.  Chris Pine is good as the square-jawed hero Kirk, while Zachary Quinto is impressive as Spock and has a nice moment which serves as a tribute to the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, Karl Urban is fun as the wisecracking McCoy and his fraught relationship with Spock is one of the delights of the film.  Simon Pegg is good as Scotty and is given a much bigger role than Scott usually has (which isn't surprising as Pegg co-wrote the script).  Zoe Saldana and John Cho are underused as Uhura and Sulu, although they still have their moments, and there is a nice glimpse of Sulu's family life.  Anton Yelchin is good as Chekhov (of course Yelchin died tragically just a few weeks before the film opened and it is dedicated to his memory).  Idris Elba steals the show as  the evil Krall, and Sofia Boutella is impressive as kick-ass alien fighter Jaylah.

It manages the difficult task of paying homage and staying true to the spirit of the original series, while still being very much it's own thing, and with this film the new Star Trek series really comes into it's own, and the Enterprise crew really start to work together well.  A treat for Trekkers, but with enough humour and action to appeal to non fans as well.

Sofia Boutella and Simon Pegg boldly go to Star Trek Beyond