The Bubble

The Bubble

Director: Judd Apatow. Cast: David Duchovny, Iris Apatow, Pedro Pascal, Keegan-Michael Key, Maria Bakalova.

Judd Apatow is now considered one of the hottest properties in Hollywood, not just as a screenwriter, which is how he started, but as a director and producer. His name has been attached to some of the most successful comedies of the last 20 years, both on TV and on the big screen, from “The Larry Sanders Show”, to the “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, “Knocked Up” and “Bridesmaids”.

His most recent film “The King of Staten Island” came out just as Covid broke and forced all cinemas to close down: it ended up being one of the first victims of the pandemic in cinema terms, something which Apatow must have felt quite strongly about, because it’s first film after that is actually about Covid.

“The Bubble” is about a group of narcissistic and egotistical movie stars ( a concept quite easy to buy into), trapped on a pandemic-quarantined film set. Their attempts to finish filming the 6th sequel of a “Jurassic Park”-style franchise are constantly battered by Covid infections, restrictions and continuous lockdowns and production shut downs.

I must, on paper this had the potential to be absolutely hilarious and if I have to be honest I found myself laughing out-loud and smiling more during the first 10 minute of this film than in many other comedies this year.

This clearly wants to be a satire on show business, celebrity culture and

Hollywood in general as being out of touch with reality.

It’s also a film that deals with Covid itself and makes the madness of the pandemic part of the story.

There are indeed some funny moments at the start of the film, mostly playing on those frustrated feelings we’ve all shared during those endless lockdowns. For example there are some amusing moments when during some various zoom calls we’re shown a studio boss always in amazing locations around the world, a proof that some people had definitely “better lockdowns” than many of us. Alas the film fails at any attempt to give any clever insights or genuine reflection on the state of Hollywood during the pandemic.

A lot of the comedy is made up of too many “inside jokes” which might play nicely to those Apatow’s Hollywood peers, but will probably go over the heads of any member of the normal audience.

The film feels more like a collection of sketches, most of which way too indulgent, to say the list and too stupid to be funny. They’re also badly stringed together in an attempt to make them look like a coherent film (an attempt which fails miserably).

None of the people in the large cast of middle-to-big names like Keegan-Michael Key (Key and Peele), David Duchovny (The X Files), Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) nor the many cameo appearances from stars like Daisy Ridley, James McAvoy, John Cena, John Lithgow and Benedict Cumberbatch help making this any better.

In fact after a while I just begun to feel sorry for all these actors, not for what they were going through in the film, but because they actually in this film and they were making complete fools of themselves and being generally very unlikeable.

The result is a very uneven film, which too often struggles to get a laugh and feels insufferable and interminable (A cardinal sin for a comedy, in my view).

It also reminded us of a time we’d rather forget… probably just like we should forget this film.

“Well at least we tried to make a movie in this difficult time. They can’t judge us for that” says one character just at the end of the movie. I wonder whether that’s Apatow realising he’s made a dud.

On Netflix

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial ()

Director: Steven Spielberg. Cast: Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote Robert MacNaughton Drew Barrymore C. Thomas Howell™

I’ve just came out of a screening of E.T. with live music played the Philhamonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall and all I want to do right now is talk and write about it.

My son and I watch this film pretty much every year and every time it’s the usual storm of emotions as we were watching it for the first time. And that’s one of the many powers of this absolute masterpiece. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen it: you’ll still laugh, you’ll still be thrilled… and you’ll still cry.

Watching it (probably for the 100th time as fast as I am concerned) with the clinical eyes of the nerdy film-maker I can only marvel at what Spielberg was able to achieve.

To me this is ‘pure cinema’. It’s most likely one of the main reasons why I feel in love with films and if today I’m the person I am and do the work I do, I have ET to thank.

This is Spielberg at his very best, with his unique ability to tell visual stories. His camera is always in the right place, at the right time: for this film, he brings it down to children’s level (or ET’s level) cutting off the faces of all the grown-ups, as if to enhance the power that children have and to get closer and closer to them. It’s incredible how for three quarter of the film we never see the face of an adult (except for the mother, who’s the only one ‘allowed’ in the children’s real). And yet, we never even wonder about it, because we are so invested in the story that we don’t even notice it. It’s a technique often imitated, but never quite matched.

Watching it tonight, with a live orchestra, I was reminded of how many sequences rely on just music and no dialogue (the whole beginning for example). If this isn’t the purest form of cinema as visual storytelling, I don’t know what is.

Some people call the film (and Spielberg) too sentimental, but actually the ability to manipulate people’s emotions so effortlessly, as if it was the easiest thing in the world, is a skill set that very few directors have.

The film is packed with great moments: of course the iconic shot of ET and Elliot flying across the moon, possibly one of the most enduring image in the history of cinema, but also great scenes like ET speaking (“ET phone home”), ET dying or the last goodbye, as well as dozens of little tiny moments, which go mostly unnoticed, but are so beautifully handled that should be studied in every film school: the sequence with the men from the government entering the house for the first time, all played through a series imagines with lights and shadows moving across the toys in the bedroom, or the beautiful cross cutting between ET at home and Elliot in school culminating with “a quiet man” played on TV and Elliot kissing the blond girl.

I adore the very odd blocking of the moment with Elliot facing a spotlight as ET’s hand lands on his shoulder, a scene which seen from the outside might look unnatural and awkward, but somehow in the hands of Spielberg, through his lens seems absolutely natural. I have a particular soft spot for the quietest moments too:

the scene where Elliot shows his toys to ET… or the two of them listening to the mother telling stories to the little sister (how spectacular Drew Barrymore was, y the way!

And then of course, last but certainly not least, the powerful Oscar-winning score by John Williams, which in the screening tonight took center stage, just as soaring and warm and you might remember, though interestingly I also noticed how crucial a good audio mix is. The music tonight played mostly all on the same level, making me very aware of it throughout and possibly undermining the moments where you really want it loud. I loved the experience of a live orchestra playing during the film, but if you watch ET for the first time, it’s probably better to see it as it was originally intended.

The screening tonight in the packed auditorium served as a little reminder of the kind of crowd pleaser this film is… Not that I need to be reminder anyway.

The audience’s reactions were a statement how powerful and magical this film still is.

Family entertainment has hardly been better than this. Children (and adults) across the world have been blessed with ET for 40 years (it is indeed it anniversary) and I urge you to find any excuse to watch it again whenever you get a chance.

Fantastic Beasts: the Crime of Grindelwald

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald  

Director: David Yates. Cast: Johnny Depp, Kevin Guthrie, Carmen Ejogo, Eddie Redmayne, Zoë Kravitz, Jude Law.

Well, if you’ve read my previous review of what I thought of the first film you might be able to skip this one, because everything I said before sadly gets confirmed for “Fantastic Beasts Part2”

It seems J.K. Rowling has learnt nothing from the shortcomings of her previous film, but crucially she seems to have forgotten what made the Potter Series so special.

I’m afraid she really must take most of the blame for this muddled mess of a film.

The plot of this film is so convoluted that at some point I just gave up and stopped asking “who?” What?” “How?” and let the film wash over me.

What’s so frustrating is that there is so much potential here. There are indeed still some faint glimmers of that warmth and inventiveness from the original Harry Potter magic, but on the whole they are mostly eclipsed by everything that was wrong in the first one, to which I had given the benefit of the doubt, and which is by now amplified if not doubled.

We start off with one of the most confusing chase sequences I’ve seen in the last few years and then proceed to introduce characters over characters across a series of countless meandering subplots which not only lacked charm, suspense, mystery and humour but left me completely cold and actually a bit bored too.

For full disclosure, I actually watched an extended version with 7 extra minutes, none of which added anything to the previous (and already too long) cut.

Just like in the first one, Eddie Redmayne’ Newt is pretty much relegated to a side show: his character still remains a mystery to me, not so much in terms of plot, but mostly in terms of why should I care about him? 

Meanwhile the best people from Part 1, Queenie Goldstein  and Jacob Kowalski are now completely wasted. 

Johnny Depp , in what turned out to be his last Hollywood blockbuster (He has been recast for the next film by Mads Mikkelsen ), is essentially playing Voldemort 2.0, with pretty much the same evil plan in mind (to rally as many followers as possible), but does a good job at being creepy despite the very few scenes he’s in.

Jude Law also does the best with the little material he’s given, though on a very superficial level I was annoyed by the fact that he’s wearing normal clothes and not wizard robes (as you can see I had time to let my mind wonder about these pointless details).

My heart skipped a beat or two the moment we were back in Hogwarts again for some of the best moments in the film, but those few fleeting scenes only served to reminded me how much happier I was there. 

This franchise is sinking lower and lower and they’re going to have to make some real magic to un-dig it from the pit of boredom and make me excited again about the next 3 sequels!! 

The Novice

The Novice 1/2

Director: Lauren Hadaway. Cast: Isabelle Fuhrman, Amy Forsyth, Dilone 

This psychological drama which at times veers towards thriller/horror is one of the most impressive debut I’ve seen recently. It’s probably not the easiest watch, but there’s a lot to be impressed about.

“The Novice” of the title is Alex Dall, a college freshman

who joins her university’s rowing team with only one thing in mind: winning.

The film essentially is a character study which delves deep into the corrosive nature of Alex’s obsessive-compulsive behaviour, not just towards sport, but school and life in general. Her actions which pretty quickly start pushing away all the people around her, incluing her friends, team-mates and crucially her lover.

Hard to believe this is Lauren Hadaway’s first directorial effort: she seems to have a real understanding for not just visual storytelling but also all those movie-making techniques from editing to sound: jump cuts, kinetic camera movements, strange audio mixes all combined together to get the audience close to Alex’s fractured state of mind.

Meanwhile the stunning cinematography, with its beautiful calm dawn shots and reflection on water, conveys both the beauty and the pain of sport.

It’s easy to see echoes from films like “Whiplash” and “Black Swan”, both dealing with obsessions towards music, in the first instance and dance in the second, but Hadaway’s distinct style makes this a piece of its own.

The fact that she’s also written and edited the film, gives it a very personal distinctive aesthetic, whilst her decade-long experience in sound editing in mega-films like Justice League and The Hateful Eight shows at every beat and gives the film an extra dimension which enhances the pathos of the film.

All of this is at times may feel slightly over-done and possibly a bit intrusive, but I like to think it’s intentional given the character it’s trying to depict.

At the centre of this, Isabelle Fuhrman’s fierce and powerful performance (You might remember her from that very creepy, though rather silly, film called “Orphan”) is magnetic as well as infuriating and actually rather hateful too.

In the end however, the film remains more of an enigma for me, as the plot becomes slightly secondary to the mood it’s creating and the experience of it.

We don’t really learn what pushed Alex to be the person she is, nor what’s going to happen to her. All we’re left with is a very uncomfortable feeling which might even put you off sport for a while.

It’s a film that I admired more than loved, but I can’t wait to see what Hadaway does next.

“The Novice” in out the cinema right now.

Ambulance

Ambulance

Director: Michael Bay. Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González 

The plot for the latest Michael Bay’s film is essentially an excuse to showcase a very prolonged car chase from beginning to end: after bank heist goes wrong, two brothers hijack an ambulance and set off on a high-speed pursuit that never seems to stop, as they try to keep their hostages alive.

For the last few decades Michael Bay’s movies have been synonymous of explosions, fast cutting, stylistic visuals, special effects, … and let’s be honest, dumb scripts and heavily objectifying women.

Critics (Mark Kermode being one of the most vocal) have been describing Bay’s way of filming actresses as “lascivious” and “pornographic” and have criticised the director’s constant sexist remarks and stereotypical female characters.

According to the “urban Dictionary” website “In order to appreciate his dumb shock and awe style, you must either be stupid enough to think on his level or smart enough not to care how intellectual a movie about robots and explosions is”. And while such definition feels harsh, I can’t help sharing some of that feeling too.

His over-dependency on slow motions, used pretty much every time there’s an explosion or a loud noise (so basically all the times in his films), have now become almost parody of the genre itself. Not to mention Bay’s love for low-angle shots looking up at characters getting out of cars.

The last Bay film I have actually enjoyed was probably “the Rock”, starring Sean Connery, Ed Harris and Nicholas Cage, and that was back in 1996.

Ever since then, the director has given us the silly “Armageddon”, the almost insulting “Pearl Harbour” and the abysmal Transformers movies. He’s also been producing some of the most pointless remakes of classic horrors from the 70s and 80s: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, The Hitcher, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. None of which came even close to the originals and most of them were panned by critics and audiences alike.

So you can imagine my surprise when about half way through “Ambulance” I realised I wasn’t actually hating the film as much as I was expecting and in fact I thought it was quite entertaining, in a very “turn-your-brain-off” type of way. I was also pleased to notice that some of the most offending aspects of Bay’s sensibility had been finally turned off for the one.

There are in the film some obvious echoes from “Speed”, another movie constantly “on the move”, (though it’s more difficult to empathise with shouty-shouty Jake Gyllenhall as we did with Keanu Reeves) and while, of course, it is too long and Bay’s tendency to over-cut things, as if on steroids, his lack of self-aware humour and his love for showing off with his new drone-toy, which pointlessly flies up and down skyscrapers, along roads and across all sort rooms rather randomly, did get a little bit on my nerves, as an action flick, “Ambulance” is a perfectly serviceable one: it’s full of action set-pieces and it “does what it says on the tin”.

In fact I’d go even further and say that it’s one of the best films Bay has done in decades!

Ambulance is out in cinemas.