The Wonder

Year:  2022

Director:  Sebastián Lelio

Screenplay:  Emma Donoghue, Sebastián Lelio and Alice Birch, based on the novel The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Starring:  Florence Pugh, Tom Burke, Kila Lord Cassidy, Niamh Algar, Elaine Cassidy, Dermot Crowley, Josie Walker, Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones

Running Time:  103 minutes

Genre:  Period drama

1862: English nurse Elizabeth Wright (Pugh) travels to a remote rural village in Ireland to investigate a young girl, Anna O'Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy) who, according to her family, has not eaten for four months, and yet still appears to be in good health.  

Based on Emma Donoghue's 2016 novel, The Wonder is a dark and powerful psychological period drama. Its slow moving, meditative pace with bleak, windswept vistas of moorland and dark, cramped interiors, cast a powerful spell.  The film's message of belief and the stories that we tell ourselves and each other is hammered home a little too much, including a strange prologue in a film studio emphasising to the viewer that, yes, we are being told a story.  It is also about the dangers of belief, and even in this day and age, it is unusual to see a film that has such a strongly secular message.  However it also deals with how much people need stories and need something to hold on to.  Elizabeth has previously lost her baby and has been abandoned by her husband, she is also traumatised by her experiences nursing the sick and injured in the Crimean War, and copes with her trauma and despair by taking laudanum and also pricking herself with pins.  The O'Donnell family and the village itself are still suffering the after effects of the Great Famine, and feel like they need a miracle, as well as living in a devoutly religious and patriarchal society, cut off from much of the rest of the world.  Florence Pugh gives a powerful performance as the skeptical, grieving nurse.  Kila Lord Cassidy is very good as the "fasting girl", and her real-life mother, Elaine Cassidy, plays her character's devout mother, paralysed with grief for the loss of her teenage son.  Niamh Algar plays the taciturn and slightly sinister elder O'Donnell daughter, and Tom Burke plays the charismatic newspaper reporter who originally came form the village, and is immediately convinced that Anna is faking, but also understands the way the villager's minds work.  While some of the film's more offbeat touches don't always work, it is a beautiful, dark and troubling film, with fantastic performances. 

  Florence Pugh and Kila Lord Cassidy in The Wonder

Black Widow

Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Cate Shortland

Screenplay:  Eric Pearson, story by Jackie Schaeffer and Ned Benson, based on the Marvel comics character Black Widow created by Stan Lee, Don Rico and Don Heck

Starring:  Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, Ray Winstone, Rachel Weisz, Olga Kurylenko, William Hurt

Running Time:  134 minutes

Genre:  Thriller, science-fiction, superhero

Superhero team The Avengers has collapsed and former assassin turned Avenger Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, (Johansson) is on the run from the US Government.  Contacted by her estranged younger sister, Yelena (Pugh), Natasha learns that the all-female team of elite brainwashed assassins known as "Widows" is still active, and she and Yelena have to confront a monstrous figure from their past and a powerful new "super-soldier" who can exactly mimic any opponent's fighting style so it's like "fighting a mirror".

This is the 24th film in the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise, based on characters and stories from Marvel Comics.  This film, however, while there are frequent references to the previous films, is by and large a stand-alone film and can be enjoyed even if you haven't seen all of the others, which is something of a relief.  The film starts off as a gripping spy thriller, although it does become increasingly science-fictional as to goes along.  As played by Scarlett Johansson, Natasha Romanoff is one of the stalwarts of the MCU franchise, but this is the first time that she headlines her own film.  By now, Johansson fits the role like a glove, and here is added Florence Pugh as her sister.  The two work really well together, and there is real chemistry.  In particular Pugh has a nice line in the throwaway delivery of comic one-liners.  David Harbour more or less reprises his gruff-but-loveable dad from Stranger Things (2016-present) but with an added Russian accent.  O-T Fagbenle appears as Natasha's own version of James Bond's Q supplying her with vehicles and equipment.   Rachel Weisz is sinisterly maternal and Ray Winstone is oilily villainous.  Olga Kurylenko does a lot with a little as a tragic, silent assassin and William Hurt has a extended cameo as the US agent on Natasha's trail.  The film has obvious nods to the James Bond franchise, acknowledged in one scene where Natasha watches Moonraker (1979), and there are nods to the TV series The Americans (2013-2018).  By and large this is a very good action film.  the action scenes and special effects are spectacular, the fighting scenes are well choreographed, the jokes are funny and there is some real emotion.  The performances, particularly from Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh, are good.  The film's main problem is that the story runs out of steam before the end, and it all wraps up a little too neatly, but it's engaging and spectacular enough that it doesn't really matter.  

By the way, as with all of the MCU films there is an additional brief scene after the closing credits, so stick around.

  Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh in Black Widow

 

Little Women

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  Greta Gerwig
Screenplay:  Greta Gerwig, based on the novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Starring:  Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet
Running Time:  135 minutes
Genre:  Period drama

Set in the 1860s the film follows the four March sisters:  Responsible Meg (Watson) the oldest of the four; stubborn and fiery Jo (Ronan), an aspiring writer; kind, shy and musical Beth (Scanlen) and the youngest of the four, Amy (Pugh), an aspiring painter. 

This is one of several adaptations of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, which I have never read, and I have never seen any of the other adaptations of it, and so I cannot say how faithful or not this film is to it's source.  The film introduces us to the March sisters as adults, and moves back and forth between their childhood and their adult lives.  The film is beautifully made with some ravishing images, and impeccably played by a very strong cast.  After having made a splash with her directorial debut Lady Bird, this marks Greta Gerwig as one of the most promising new directors working today.  The film has a large cast of characters and moves between a number of different storylines and time frames, with nary a misstep.  It also successfully balances period detail with a contemporary relevance.

Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan and Eliza Scanlen in Little Women

Midsommar

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  Ari Aster
Screenplay:  Ari Aster
Starring:  Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, Will Poulter
Running Time:  147 minutes
Genre:  Folk horror

New York City:  Student Dani Arbor (Pugh) is deeply traumatised after her sister kills herself and their parents.  Her trauma puts a further strain on her already collapsing relationship with boyfriend Christian (Reynor).  Christian and his friends, Mark (Poulter) and Josh (Harper), are planning a month long trip to Sweden with their Swedish friend Pelle (Blomgren) during which they plan attend a nine-day midsummer festival that is only held every ninety years at Pelle's ancestral commune.  When Dani learns about the trip, Christian awkwardly invites her along.  When they arrive, the locals seem welcoming and friendly, but as the festivities progress, the rituals and ceremonies become increasingly bizarre and disturbing, and the tourists soon discover the commune's terrifying dark side.

Writer and director Ari Aster made a splash in 2018 with his debut film Hereditary.  This is a different style of film.  It belongs to a sub-genre of horror known as folk horror, which is mostly set in isolated rural locations and based around folk traditions and beliefs.  Here is horror set entirely in beautiful sunlit locations and, unusually for a horror film,  it almost all takes place in broad daylight.  The story unfolds at a languid pace, but has an ever present disturbing atmosphere that increases as it goes on.  It uses a lot of subtle tricks with sound and visuals making it a hallucinatory and often nightmarish experience.  Florence Pugh is wonderful in the lead, the other characters don't really have much to do except react to what happens to them, but there are some well-drawn tensions between the others in the group (Mark is extremely gauche and insensitive, Josh believes that Christian wants to copy his thesis and Pelle is in love with Dani).  There is also a surprising amount of humour, it is a very funny film.  Watching it, I felt constantly off balance and disoriented as it moves from domestic drama to poetic beauty, to crude humour, to disturbing surrealism to flashes of quite shocking gore.  I thought this film was really something special. 

Florence Pugh in Midsommar