Cineworld Edinburgh

Project Hail Mary

15/03/26

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Science fiction movies come in all shapes and forms. They can be epic widescreen showcases. They can be intriguing ‘what if’ commentaries on uncertain futures. They can be wildly funny, gently heartwarming. They can be tales of triumph over adversity. They can be suspenseful, ironic, prophetic and surprising. Project Hail Mary somehow manages to be all of these things in the space of a couple of hours and, trust me, that’s not intended as a criticism.

Based on the novel by Andy Weir and adapted by Drew Goddard, the story begins aboard the titular space probe with Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) waking up from a very, VERY long sleep. He’s long-haired, bearded and extremely confused. What’s he doing on a freaking space ship? He’s a junior high school teacher for Christ’s sake! And why are the only other people aboard the probe both dead?

Memories from thirteen years ago gradually start to come back to him. He remembers being approached by Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), an administrator for the European Space Agency. She’s looking for a molecular biologist, something that Ryland worked at before he became a teacher. Eva delivers some bad news: the sun is dying, its power being gradually consumed by single-celled organisms called ‘Astrophage.’ If nothing is done about the situation, it will mean that humanity is going to face ‘total extinction’ within just a few short years. Will Ryland help her to find a solution for the problem?

He agrees to join her huge team of scientists, but makes it very clear from the outset that he’s really not interested in going into outer space himself. He’s a homebody, not a hero. On no account will he ever don a spacesuit and venture out of Earth’s gravity. Eva tells him it’s not a problem. So… how did he get here? And now he is here, what’s he supposed to do?

I love the way this complex tale is told, the background to the story gradually released via out-of-sequence recollections. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller seem to relish multi-faceted storylines (see Into the Spider-Verse if you want further proof) and while PHM takes its own sweet time laying out all the pertinent details, it never loses momentum. Around the halfway mark, Ryland has a chance encounter with an alien starship and subsequently meets up with its only surviving crew member. He’s an Eridian, a strange many-limbed creature that appears to be made from lumps of stone and who Ryland immediately dubs ‘Rocky.’ Once they have devised a way to communicate, Ryland discovers that Rocky is on a similar mission to him – trying to find a way to save his own planet, Erid, which is also being ravaged by those pesky astrophages.

The two of them resolve to work together, though that isn’t a straightforward process…

The relationship between the two mismatched travellers is at the heart of this goofy and unapologetically sentimental tale. Rocky is a deceptively simple creation, devised using old-school puppetry rather than digital effects – and Gosling has rarely been more engaging than he is here, as a kind of super-nerd discovering that he’s capable of more than he ever imagined.

Best watched on an IMAX screen – some of the special effects sequences are eye-popping – this is an enchanting and thought-provoking tale that keeps me hooked throughout and delivers an intricate storyline with extraordinary skill.

4.6 stars

Philip Caveney

Furiosa: a Mad Max Saga

25/05/24

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Furiosa is my most anticipated film of the year but to fully explain why, it’s necessary to briefly look back at the career of writer/director George Miller. I saw the first film in the Mad Max franchise way back in 1979, a modest, low-budget revenge thriller starring a young Mel Gibson. It was perfectly watchable but gave no idea of the wonders that were to follow. 

In 1983, The Road Warrior brought back the titular character with a bigger budget and an iconic look that depicted Australia in the years following a nuclear war. It was louder, more ambitious and gloriously inventive, an unstoppable thrill ride. In 1985, Beyond Thunderdome brought in Tina Turner for a guest appearance and appeared to round off the franchise in grand style. 

In normal circumstances, that would probably have been the end of it. So when Miller resurfaced nearly thirty years later with Fury Road, I had very low expectations. Tom Hardy stepped into the scuffed boots of Max and Charlize Theron played a new character, Furiosa. The film was an extraordinary, foot-to-the-metal, adrenaline-powered masterpiece, one that left me stunned at its conclusion. I saw it a second time in 3D and, two years later, was one of the first in the queue for the special Black and Chrome edition. How was Miller ever going to follow such a powerful creation?

He took his time. I was astonished to realise just the other day that it’s a full nine years since Fury Road’s release. The worst thing that could happen, I thought, would be if he tried to replicate the previous film’s simple, propulsive structure – and happily he’s gone in an entirely different direction. Of course he has. He’s George Miller.

Furiosa is a prequel, a much more episodic affair than its predecessor, divided into five chapters (each with a portentous title) and, unlike Fury Road’s three and a half day timeline, this is set over something like eighteen years. We first meet the young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) in ‘The Green Place,’ the childhood home she spent most of Fury Road trying to get back to, and it’s clear at a glance why she was missing this verdant ‘place of abundance’ in the midst of a desert. But her tranquil life is rudely disrupted when she is kidnapped by a gang of bikers from the wasteland and taken to the kingdom of Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), a motor-mouthed, self-aggrandising ruler, who is used to taking whatever he wants whenever he wants it. Furiosa is merely his latest acquisition. But the girl’s mother, Mary (Charlee Fraser), follows her, intent on taking her home again at any cost…

What immediately hits me about this film is the glorious world-building that’s going on. This is an eye-popping spectacle. Every shot caught by cinematographer Simon Duggan is ravishing and Jenny Beavan’s costume design is endlessly inventive. Add the powerful sound design and you have a film that literally shakes you in your seat. It’s a full hour before Alyla Browne mutates into Anya Taylor-Joy in one of the most accomplished on-screen transformations I’ve ever witnessed. Given only thirty lines of dialogue in the entire film, Taylor-Joy has to convey her character mostly using her eyes. She somehow manages to show Furiosa’s inner turmoil, only briefly finding solace in the affection of rig-driver Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke). Her most powerful motivator – a desire for revenge – is ever present and often propels her into rage. It’s fascinating to watch her. Hemsworth is also wonderful as Dementus, so much more than a cardboard cut-out villain. Here is a man with his own inner turmoil and awareness of his failings. He really should play bad guys more often.

Motor lovers shouldn’t despair because Miller’s trademark behemoth vehicles are in evidence – including a chariot pulled by three motorbikes – and there’s an extended chase sequence that pulls out all the stops, particularly in the part where Praetoran Jack’s rig is attacked by paragliders. As ever, hats off to the stunt performers who make this such a thrill ride. 

But Furiosa is more – much more – than just another action flick. It’s also about the power of mythology, the ways in which stories of epic odysseys perpetuate and endure across the centuries. It’s about the desire of humanity to survive against overwhelming odds and the ways in which religions are shaped by those who invent them. But mostly, it’s about a 79-year-old director at the height of his powers, being unleashed into the world’s biggest sandbox and invited to play. And here, Miller shows more unbridled invention than I’ve seen in a very long time. 

My advice? Get thee to the biggest IMAX screen available, buckle in and enjoy the ride. Oh, and Max? He’s there… but you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled to spot him.

5 stars

Philip Caveney

War Pony

06/06/23

Cineworld, Edinburgh

War Pony makes for harrowing viewing. Set – and filmed – on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, it chronicles the everyday lives of the resident tribe, the Lakota. It’s clear from the outset that their traditional way of life has all but disappeared, brought out only occasionally in a splash of sound and colour to entertain the tourists. The film focuses mostly on the lives of two young men, who are trying their best to deal with the blows that their existence throws at them.

Matho (Ladainian Crazy Thunder) is perhaps twelve years old, living with his father, a meth dealer. A bit of a dreamer, Matho drifts aimlessly through school, preferring to read an obscure book about magic that he carries with him everywhere than to focus on the curriculum. By night, he and his four best friends run amok around the reservation, making drug deals, getting wasted and generally causing mayhem. After a violent row with his father over some pilfered drugs, Matho is kicked out and winds up bunking in the home of another dealer. But then his father dies under suspicious circumstances (something Matho may have inadvertently caused) and now he must fend for himself any way he can.

Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting) is in his twenties, already the father of two sons (to two different women, one of whom is in jail). He gets by with a sleepy grin and a relaxed WTF manner, but he too has to wheel and deal to make ends meet. In his world, everything has a price and, when he finally hits on his game plan, it’s fairly unconventional. He will purchase a female poodle and become a dog breeder, selling the resulting puppies for big profits. Meanwhile, a chance encounter with a local white farmer leads to him obtaining a paid position – not bad for a kid from the ‘res’.

But unfortunately, part of that job is to act as a chauffeur to the various young Native American girls whom his new employer likes to sleep with…

Though the two lead characters have nothing in common and only meet in one brief scene, the film is quick to point out that Matho is somehow already in rehearsal to be exactly like Bill one day, provided he manages to survive long enough. The repeated (unexplained) reappearance of a bison, the creature around which the Lakota’s lifestyle once centred, strikes a powerful and thought-provoking element. The creature no longer has any place here: he has become an almost surreal symbol of a lost identity, just as Matho and Bill too, are stranded. The latter no longer even knows how to speak his own language.

Utilising a cast of mostly non-professionals and written by Native Americans, Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy – in collaboration with directors Riley Keogh and Gina Gammell – War Pony feels totally authentic, a gritty and realistic piece that highlights the plight of a displaced people with absolute authority. Though there are occasional snatches of humour in the twists and turns of the story, most of what happens to the characters here is profoundly distressing.

But this is an important story that deserves to be seen by big audiences and the sizeable crowds at this Unlimited screening suggests that there are plenty of people ready and willing to watch it.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

Matilda the Musical

08/12/22

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Way back in 2010, we spent a few days in Stratford-upon-Avon, to see in the New Year. Of course, we planned to go to the theatre while we were there, but we were winging it, and didn’t check what was on. We just assumed there’d be a Shakespeare, and thought we’d pick up tickets on the night. So we were disappointed to find nothing from the Bard on offer, and grimaced at the thought of the only thing there was: a kids’ musical. Still, we didn’t have anything else to do, so we wandered disconsolately up to the box office, only to find that there were no seats left. Double dejection. “There are some standing tickets,” we were told. “They’re £5 each.” We dithered. Did we really want to spend a couple of hours on our feet watching a play we weren’t that keen to see? “It’s only a fiver,” we reasoned. “If we don’t like it, we can leave at the interval.”

That night, we were treated to the delight that is Matilda the Musical – one of the most fortuitous accidents of our lives. Of course we didn’t leave at the interval: we were captivated. Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly had created a masterpiece, and we’d been lucky enough to stumble upon it.

Of course, the raw material they had was good. Roald Dahl’s Matilda is an engaging character: a little girl with more wit and gumption than any of the adults in her life. At the tender age of ten, she realises that she can’t put up with either her parents’ wilful neglect or her cruel headteacher’s bullying. After all, “if you always take it on the chin and wear it, nothing will change”. It shouldn’t take a child to put things right, but she only knows two decent grown-ups: Miss Honey, who is stymied by her own fear, and Miss Phelps, who doesn’t know the dismal truth, only the fairytale Matilda has concocted for her. It’s a David and Goliath tale, of pantomime proportions.

I am excited to see the film version of this (by now) hit stage show, and it doesn’t disappoint. Alisha Weir imbues Matilda with just the right amounts of sass and vulnerability, all righteous anger and secret yearning. Emma Thompson’s Miss Trunchbull is a towering threat, oversized to illuminate the mountain Matilda has to climb; she’s clearly revelling in the role. Indeed, there’s a sense of relish from all the adult actors playing against type: Lashana Lynch (Miss Honey) unleashing her softer side and some seriously impressive vocals; Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough taking a break from the highbrow as Matilda’s comedically grotesque parents. It’s a fun, feel-good film – despite the horrific violence and cruelty it contains – with a bright, rainbow palette, and the sense, all the way through, that Matilda will triumph.

The young cast are adorable – cute, but not overly contrived. Andrei Shen (Eric), Charlie Hodson-Prior (Bruce), Rei Yamauchi Fulker (Lavender), Ashton Robertson (Nigel) and Winter Jarrett-Glasspool (Amanda) make a formidable team, following Matilda’s lead and ultimately freeing themselves from Miss Trunchbull’s clutches.

Matthew Warchus, who also directed the theatre version, makes the transition to film successfully. There is an element of staginess, it must be said, but only in the best possible way: those huge, ensemble dance numbers are a delight.

With kids or without them, Matilda the Musical feels like a Christmas must-see this year.

4.2 stars

Susan Singfield