March | 2020 | the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On the Eternal Appeal of Lando Calrissian…

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine this evening. With the release of the nine core Star Wars films on streaming in Ultra-HD, I thought it was worth revisiting the most compelling character in the franchise, Lando Calrissian.

Lando is great. A lot of that is down to the cool and charismatic performance of Billy Dee Williams in the role. However, there’s also something very interesting in the way that Lando is built. He’s a lot more flawed than the other heroes of the franchise, a lot more relatable. Lando is a pretty normal guy who suddenly happens to find himself drawn into this epic battle between good and evil, largely to serve as a foil to the genuinely heroic Han Solo. Lando’s primary function is that he demonstrates that Han really is the leader and hero that Leia believes him to be, by showing the audience and the characters what a selfish rogue actually looks like.

It’s a trend that continues with the character, right through to the way in which Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker parallels Lando’s loss of his only child with Han’s loss of his son. You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: billy dee williams, lando calrissian, not all heroes wear capes, star wars | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Understated Power of Pierce Brosan’s Bond…

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine last week. With the release of No Time To Die pushed out, and St. Patrick’s Day relatively understated, I thought it was worth taking a look at Pierce Brosnan’s tenure playing James Bond.

Brosnan is often overlooked in assessments of the James Bond franchise, largely overshadowed by the (deserved) reappraisal of Timothy Dalton’s vulnerability in the role and the (deserved) celebration of the emotional complexity that Daniel Craig brought to the icon. This is a shame, because there’s a lot to like about Pierce Brosnan’s interpretation of the superspy. Most obviously, there’s a sense in which Brosnan’s interpretation of the character refused to be tormented and tortured by the work that he did. Brosnan played Bond as a man uniquely attuned to the demands of his job, an unchanging man in a rapidly changing world. The result is a character who seems unflinchingly brutal, but who also collapsed his patriotism into satisfaction of his more personal vices.

Whether intentional or not, Brosnan’s interpretation of the character makes the audience uncomfortable, particularly the joy that he takes in violence and the sense in which little really matters to him beyond satisfying his own urges. It’s a provocative approach to the character, one that stands in marked contrast to the more considered introspection of the the two performers either side of him. Brosnan’s Bond often seems to be challenging the audience, asking whether we enjoy the callous violence and detached brutality as much as the protagonist does, without offering us the “get out of jail free” card that Dalton and Craig’s more solemn portrayals afford viewers.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: audience, brutality, escapist, GoldenEye, james bond, no time to die, pierce brosnan, The World Is Not Enough, tomorrow never dies, violence | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the New Films Available Early on Streaming…

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Darren

I published a new Don’t Miss It piece at Escapist Magazine this evening

Basically, with the shutdown of theatres, a lot of content is landing on digital streaming services very quickly. It can be hard to keep track of it all, so we thought we’d throw together a quick round-up of the headlines, drawing attention to films like Just Mercy, The Way Back, Birds of Prey, Emma., The Hunt, The Invisible Man and more that will be available straight to your television set in the next couple of days.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: corona virus, covid-19, digital, films, future, Movies, streaming | Leave a comment »

New at The Sunday Independent! An Idiot’s Guide to Screening…

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Darren

In one of those rare “I feel like a real journalist!” moments, I was asked to write a little piece at The Sunday Independent about streaming.

The film critics at The Sunday Independent, the wonderful Áine O’Connor and the sensational Hilary A. White, have put together a guide of what to watch on various streaming services. There’s a lot of really great material there, but there’s also a sense that this might be a new frontier for a lot of older readers used to physical media. So I put together a quick guide to service providers anf mechanics, and demonstrating what is available and how in terms of getting that streaming movie from your phone or laptop to your own big screen set-up.

It was great to be asked, and hopefully provide something of a useful public service in these turbulent times. You can read the article (and get those recommendations) here. Incidentally, I’ll be having a guide to some of the new releases available to stream early going up at The Escapist later on this evening.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: digital, quarantine, self-isolating, streaming, the sunday independent | Leave a comment »

174. Birdemic: Shock and Terror (-#5)

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Donal Smith and Donal Sweeney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, James Nguyen’s Birdemic: Shock and Terror.

Software salesman Rod has the perfect life. He has just closed the biggest deal in the history of his company, which has itself just been bought out by a giant conglomerate. More than that, a chance encounter with an old school friend leads to a blossoming romance with a Victoria’s Secret model. Everything is going well, until death swoops in from above.

At time of recording, it was ranked 5th on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: auteur, birdemic: shock and terror, coronavirus, covid-19, cult, donal smith, donal sweeney, film, Movie, podcast, remote, review, sundance, terrible, tim and eric | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On COVID-19 and a Globalised Film Industry…

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine last week. Ironically, it’s probably already well out of date.

In the time since the article was published last Monday, the COVID-19 pandemic has only escalated further. Movie and television studios have halted production and distribution of various major titles. However, all of this illustrated how incredibly globalised the modern film industry truly is, both in the stories that we tell and the manner in which we are telling them. These are films that rely on global audiences, and so an outbreak in Japan and China has major repercussions within Hollywood itself.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: covid-19, escapist magazine, no time to die | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the “The Hunt” as Empty Provocation…

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Darren

I published a new piece at Escapist Magazine last week. This is one has been a while in the making, since at least August last year.

The Hunt was massive controversial before anybody had actually watched the finished cut of the film. It attracted the ire of Fox News and, through that, Donald Trump. Universal pushed the film back, eventually settling on a mid-March release date, with the advertising leaning heavily into that controversy as a selling point. As such, it’s impossible to discuss The Hunt without discussing the maelstrom around it. This means that the movie itself feels like a disappointment and a damp squib. Its potent political content is nothing more than empty provocation, its biting social commentary just an elaborate troll. The Hunt has nothing to say, which is particularly disappointing as it is sandwiched between the genuinely political provocations of The Invisible Man and Promising Young Woman.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: donald trump, escapist magazine, film, politics, provocation, the hunt | Leave a comment »

173. I Know Who Killed Me (-#75)

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with guest Cian Sullivan from the Selected and Sissy That Pod, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, Chris Sivertson‘s I Know Who Killed Me.

Aubrey Fleming is a talented student, piano player and writer from the upper class surroundings of New Salem. She has lived a sheltered life, but this changes dramatically as a serial killer stalks the community. Disappearing after a football game, Aubrey is found dismembered but alive in a ditch. Rushed to hospital, she eventually regains consciousness. There’s just one complication. She claims to be Dakota, a stripper who has lived a much crueler life than Aubrey ever knew.

At time of recording, it was ranked 75th on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: celebrity, fame, gossip, i know who killed me, Lindsay Lohan, news, scandal, self-destruction, speculation, the canyons, torture porn | 2 Comments »

New Escapist Column! On the Narrative Patching of “The Rise of Skywalker”…

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine yesterday evening. This is one is a bit topical, the constant narrative patching of Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.

The Rise of Skywalker was released to something of a collective sigh. It was a spectacular mess of film, one full of dangling plot threads, unnecessary revelations and mountains of fan service. However, that messiness left a number of awkward lacunas, that were gradually filled in with supplemental material that revealed the nature of Lando’s arc and the identity of Rey’s father. All of this stuff radically alters the experience and understanding of The Rise of Skywalker, and the decision to strip that stuff out of the film itself illustrates how horrific the production process truly was. The awkward efforts to shoehorn this stuff back in are arguably comparable to the day-one patching of Cats to cover terrible special effects. This is not a flattering comparison.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: escapist, skywalker, star wars, the rise of skywalker | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Misbehaviour

Posted on March 13, 2020 by Darren

Misbehaviour is a charming an engaging film that suffers slightly from the lack of a clear focal point.

Philippa Lowthorpe’s historical drama-comedy is set against the backdrop of the 1970 Miss World pageant in London. The event became something of a point of convergence in the cultural wars spilling over from the end of the sixties, a target for the anarchist fringe, the anti-apartheid campaign, and for the nascent women’s liberation movement. At the same time, a quieter revolution was taking place within the event itself. Grenada had sent its first contestant to take part, while South Africa sent a black woman to represent them for the first time.

Misbehaviour features an incredibly stacked cast and diverse array of perspectives, looking at the central event through a variety of radically different prisms. There’s a sense that Misbehaviour wants to offer a genuinely intersectional perspective on the events of that explosive contest, the film’s form resembling its core themes. It helps that Lowthorpe has assembled an increidbly charming cast, and that spending time with just about any member of the ensemble is a worthwhile endeavour of itself.

At the same time, though, the film struggles to balance its large ensemble. There are occasionally too many plates spinning, and too much space between them. By the time that the film has checked in on all the major characters and circled back around, dramatic momentum has been lost and the film has to spend a minute or two regaining its footing. As a result, Misbehaviour never works as well as it might, feeling a little too clumsy and broad. Still, there’s a lot to like about it.