Cherry

Cherry

Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo. Cast Tom Holland, Ciara Bravo, Jack Reynor,Michael Rispoli

Clunky, erratic, over-long, over-stylised, “Cherry” has a script that’s so ridden with cliches that’s almost laughable, while at the same time rips off from films from the likes of Tarantino (even in its chapter-headed structure) or Scorsese (with its use of voice over plastered throughout). Watching this film is a little bit like watching millions of other war films, or films about drug addiction and PSD and bank robbers. We’ve certainly seen it all before, though probably on separate films. This one puts them all together. It looks really impressive and even if stylistically is all over the place (and when I say “all over the place”, I do mean it!! There’s a shot from inside a butt hole! Yes, you heard me right!), I won’t deny that I enjoyed bits of it throughout (though I would have certainly cut at least 20 minutes).

The real thing to take back home from this is a stunning tour-de-force performance from Tom Holland. We’ve always known he was a good actor, ever since his break-out role in the 2012 “The Impossible “, stealing the limelight from Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, but here the fact that the film seems to be a collection of 3 or 4 different films together allows him to show off a wider range of emotions, more that in any other films (well certainly he can’t do too much in Spider-man, though I did like him in there too).

I though he was really impressive in this and I could hardly take my eyes off him (He did remind me of Di Caprio in Basketball Diaries) Not as convincing (though not for lack of trying, but just because she was miscast in the role and she looks way too young) is Ciara Bravo who plays his “love interest” (I’m keeping it keeping this vague to avoid spoilers).

Ultimately “Cherry”, however polished it may look, is just a bit of a mess, full of itself and actually rather hollow, with nothing to add to the tens and tens of film about PSD we’ve seen before (or drug addiction for that matter). Also the tagged-on ending felt so abrupt and un-earned that I couldn’t restrain myself from saying aloud: “really?!?”…. A bit cheap really.I wish I could have liked it more because Holland really deserves some kudos for this (though he is young and his time will come sooner or later), so my 3 stars are only there because of him, but actually the film is a solid

“Cherry” will be released on Apple + in March.

Shortlisted BAFTA Short Films (Part 2)

Lucky Break

Director: John Addis. Cast: Jessye Romeo, Steve Oram, Diana Weston

A comedy about a girl who works in a remote service station and is bored out of her mind when a suspicious stranger enters the station, things start to get interesting… This is definitely a silly one, but nonetheless pretty enjoyable. It does however feel a bit more like a well made student film that anything of weight worth of a Bafta awards.https://filmfreeway.com/LuckyBreak2020

---

Lizard

Director: Akinola Davies. Cast: Pamilerin Ayodeji, Osayi Uzamere, Charles Etubiebi

I really had no idea what was going on here. I watched it for all its 18 minutes hoping that everything would become clear… but all of a sudden the credits started rolling and surprise surprise… I was really lost: a young girl expelled from a Sunday service, an armed attack in the streets of Laos… a giant lizard! It’s moody, well shot and given the short length it sucks you in… but by the time it all ends you feel like it was a wasted 18 minutes as it was just too impenetrable. I really had no clue what was happening. Here’s the trailer https://vimeo.com/479291270

---

Miss Curvy

Director: Ghada Eldemellawy

A short documentary about a beauty contest for “curvy girls” in Uganda and all the controversy around it (does it challenge the stereotypical idea that only slim girls can take place in beauty pageants or does this sort of things dehumanises and humiliates women?)The film follows a mother as she chases her dream to be named the country’s first Miss Curvy. It is personal and yet universal, charming and dark at the same time. The film would actually deserves more time to develop the characters as the beauty contest gets closer and closer. As it is it’s just a little bit tantalising, but in the end slightly fluffy and a bit superficial. Here’s the trailer: https://vimeo.com/390785415

---

My Brother’s Keeper

Director: Laurence Topham. Cast: Mohamedou Ould Salahi, Steve Wood

After seeing the “Mauritanian” with Jodie Foster just a few days ago, this short documentary about what happened next feels like a gift. A little post-scriptum to the story of Mohamedou Ould Salah who spent 14 years in Guantánamo prison for being a suspect behind the 9/11 attack, but who never actually got charged. Of his time there he remembers very few good moments, but one of them is the relationship with his American guard, one of the few people who treated him as a human and who he felt safe with. Years later Mohamedou is going to him again. It’s an interesting coda to a story which I am now familiar with, but I wonder I would feel if I had not seen the Mauritanian first.Also I though it was all a bit too tame and didn’t quite go deep enough in exploring the relationship between captor and prisoner. You can watch this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH-h3h22Hck

---

The Present.

Director: Farah Nabulsi. Cast: Saleh Bakri, Mariam Kanj, Mariam Basha

A short story about Yusef, a Palestinian man who set out with his young daughter in the West Bank to go shopping for some groceries and to buy his wife a new fridge for his wedding anniversary. Clearly not as easy as it sounds as going through checkpoints (both ways, in and out) is never a walk in the park. The film feels so real and immediate that after a while you might think you’re watching a documentary. Everything is seeing through the eyes of the young daughter which makes it all even more powerful, a real achievement considering the very condensed time. This has also being shortlisted for the Oscar. Here’s a trailer for it. https://youtu.be/-Kl09vy6p2c

An American Tail

An American Tail

Director: Don Bluth. Erica Yohn, Nehemiah Persoff, Amy Green, Christopher Plummer

I don’t think I had seen it since the 80s when it was first released. At the time it wasn’t well received as it seemed to go back to old style animation of the 40s instead of trying to push the boundaries forward. It was also a fairly downbeat and dark tale, which lacked the a lot of the humour cartoons were trying to inject at the time (famously Roger Ebert called it “the most depressing children’s movies of all time”) as it seemed to arch back to the mood of Dickens (though transported in America), serving more asa parable for the Holocaust, the Jews persecuted di Russia, and the many stories of immigrants to America. Some of those stories were told to Spielberg (the instigator and producer of this) from his grandfather and a lot of them ended up in this film. All this was clearly a response not just to Disney’s more and more childish and straight forward adaptations of the past few years, but mainly to the cheap techniques from the 70s and early 80s which made Disney animation less magic than it had ever been. Producer and director Don Bluth was actually a key animator on several of those films and often criticise them for looking more and more like TV cartoons. Here the animation, though fairly conventional in terms of camera movements, is beautifully realised, with each single frame painstakingly and lovingly hand-drawn, while the pastel backgrounds have a warm and painterly feel to them in stark contrast to what was being offered at the time.Back in 1986 when this was first released “An American Tail” was the biggest box office of any non-Disney animated feature (It even topped Disney’s The great Mouse detective from the same year) and to a degree its pure existence (and some of the subsequent Bluth’s productions) is credited to be one of the reasons for Disney finally deciding to up their game during what was going to be their golden era (which started with the little Mermaid). In a way the film was a also precursor of what Disney would become with those big Hollywood-style musical pieces (here “There will be no cats in America” is staged and sounds like future Disney hits like “Under the sea” or “Be our Guests”), but also some more care and attention given to the animation, something which had not been seen in a while. It may not be an instant classic nor one of those to revisit over and over again, but it’s certainly an interesting one which deserves to be re-discovered and gain its place in film history. I’ve not seen any of its sequels (one released to the cinema and 2 straight to video) not its TV series (with 13 episodes). Has anyone?

The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian (season 1 and 2)

Creator: Jon Favreau. Cast: Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Chris Bartlett, Carl Weathers.

I’m possibly slightly late with this review. By this time everyone who’s fan of Star Wars must have already seen these two seasons, but I wanted to watch it all with the family (and my 8 years old in particular, who’s becoming a biggest Star Wars fan than I am) to do my assessment of it.. and hopefully I might be able to convince those latecomers who are not so crazy-maniac-Star-Wars-devotees to give it a go.

Star Wars has been a part of my life since I was 5 years old, for better or worse. I’ve grown up with dreaming of flying the Millennium Falcon, terrorised by Darth Vader’s breathing, in awe of the many different planets, in love with R2D2, wanting to be Luke first and then Han as I grew up a bit more. I’ve been through the 3 trilogies (originals, prequels and new), through the standalone movies, I watched the animated series (loved “Rebels” and slowly going through “The Clone Wars”, which actually is getting better and better I’m on season 4), I’ve even read some books, collected stickers, bought the merchandising… and don’t get me started with the Lego sets, T-shirts and all the rest.

Through all this, I’ve obviously been disappointed by some of the outcome more times than I care to admit, but always found a way to forgive the many faults of several of the instalments. It’s Star Wars after all… it’s never meant to be “pure perfection”.And then “The Mandalorian” came along. In the beginning I thought it was all a bit slow and not Star-Warsy enough… I thought it was taking itself a bit too seriously and it seemed to lack the sense of fun and adventure that made me fall in love so much with the whole thing as a child… How short-sighted I was! Having now been to the end of season 2, this has been an absolute joy! Not just a love letter to the whole saga, but a wonderful way to expand its scope without betraying the spirit of not just the films, but the animates series as well as some of the books.It is an incredible achievement, not just technically (some of the sequences are better than any blockbuster I’ve seen on the big screen), but also emotionally: by the last episode I had tears in eyes and my son next to me was clapping his hands like I was when I was his age. What a treat! The magic of the galaxy far far away is back and it feels as fresh and groundbreaking as it felt back in 1977.

I’m in awe at what’s been achieved here and cannot wait to see where it all goes next. Well done DisneyPlus!!