Emily Blunt

The Fall Guy

05/04/24

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Those of us who have lived on this planet for a substantial number of years will probably have fond memories of the 80s TV series that inspired this film. I have little doubt that director (and former stunt man) David Leitch may himself have found inspiration in it for his own subsequent career. I have vague memories of Lee Majors as Colt Seavers, the guy who ‘makes Eastwood look so good,’ but I’d struggle to remember any storylines from the show.

Leitch’s reinvention is a romp, a big, audacious and sometimes hilarious movie that never hesitates to amp up the silliness of the concept. I can’t remember when I last laughed so much at a screening and I’ve been somewhat dismayed by the dour reviews from other critics who have dismissed the film – as though it has no right whatsoever to have fun. I completely disagree.

In this version, Seavers is played by Ryan Gosling, exuding that sleepy sensuality that has made him such a bankable star. Seavers is in recovery after a disastrous on-set accident and has since turned his (broken) back on the movie business. He now makes his living valeting cars instead of crashing them. He’s also ghosted his former lover, camera woman Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), and is painfully aware that this was a big mistake.

Out of the blue, Colt gets a call from big-time film producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), who wants him in Sydney, Australia to work on her latest would-be blockbuster, Metalstorm. Colt is initially reluctant to comply until he hears that the film in question is Jody’s directorial debut and that she has personally asked for his involvement. Spotting a chance to rekindle that botched relationship, Colt jumps aboard the first available plane.

Once there, Gail informs him that Jody hasn’t really asked for his presence at all – in fact she’s still pretty pissed off with him. The issue is that the film’s star, the egotistical Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), has gone missing and, without him, the project is as good as dead. Colt knows Tom well: he’s performed stunts for the actor for years. But his attempts to find him lead Colt down a perilous rabbit hole where everybody he encounters is trying to kill him…

Okay, so the plot wouldn’t win any prizes for originality, but writer Drew Pearce manages to keep the cinematic pot bubbling with inventive humour and there’s enough chemistry between Gosling and Blunt to make me care about how things turn out for the two of them. I love the scene where Jody makes Colt apologise for his past behaviour in front of the film’s massive cast – using a loud hailer. There’s also a very funny sequence where Colt is accompanied everywhere he goes by a unicorn. (Don’t ask.) Waddingham is terrific as the bombastic Gail and Taylor-Johnson (who also had a key role in Leitch’s last film, Bullet Train) manages to make Ryder more than just a cardboard cutout. Eagle-eyed viewers may spot David Collins of the Umbilical Brothers (one of our favourite acts at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe) in a small role as a camera technician. Oh and Metalstorm? I could be wrong, but I suspect that this weird looking alien/cowboy mash-up may be Leitch’s way of having a sly dig at (the admittedly po-faced) Dune.

And then, of course, there are the stunts, each one more elaborate and eye-popping than the last. The Fall Guy is, more than anything else, a celebration of the unsung stand-ins who risk life and limb every time they step in front of a movie camera. It’s no coincidence that in one conversation, Colt berates the fact that the Oscars still haven’t managed to offer a gong for the year’s most spectacular stunt, despite plenty of lobbying. That’s something that this film could just tip the balance for.

Naturally, there are obligatory walk-on roles for Lee Majors and his former sidekick, Heather Thomas, playing the least convincing Australian police officers in history. Well, it would be rude not to feature them somewhere, right? I could argue that the film might easily have lost half an hour in its running time and been a leaner, meaner beast, but – that said – I wouldn’t want to be the one to choose which bits to cut out. The Fall Guy is, quite simply, a whole ton of fun.

A series of clips over the end credits revealing how the action sequences were achieved adds yet another layer to the film. I sit there watching stunt players, doubling for actors, pretending to be stunt players. Let’s face it, that’s about as meta as you could reasonably ask for.

4.3 stars

Philip Caveney

Oppenheimer

22/07/23

Cineworld, Edinburgh

What do you do the day after you’ve seen Barbie? You watch Oppenheimer, of course, because some bright spark has decided that, as these two completely disparate films share the same release date, they shall henceforth be known as Barbenheimer. Well, fair enough. I’m just pleased to see the cinemas bustling again, which at least gives me some hope for their future. And I have the sense to see the films over two days, rather than as a bizarre double-bill.

Where Barbie was lighthearted and vivacious, Oppenheimer is deadly serious stuff, a biopic of the man who gave humanity the atomic bomb, along with the distinct possibility of destroying the planet we inhabit. Furthermore, with a running time of three hours, it’s clear that director Christopher Nolan wants us to ponder the titular character’s life in some considerable detail.

Nolan – still smarting, no doubt – from the underwhelming critical response for his previous offering, Tenet, has pulled out all the stops here, choosing to shoot the film using IMAX cameras. This at first seems an odd decision for a film where men in suits talk about physics but Nolan constantly cuts away to dazzling optical displays of nuclear fission, fizzing and popping like surreal fireworks, and there are impressive recreations of Los Alamos in New Mexico.

Ludwig Göransson’s score also impresses though it occasionally underpins some quite complicated dialogue (just as it did in Tenet) and I find myself wishing it would pipe down a bit. Just saying.

Cillian Murphy plays J. Robert Oppenheimer with considerable presence, managing to portray him convincingly at various stages of his life, from wide-eyed young student of physics to embittered elder statesman. Emily Blunt is quietly impressive as his wife, Kitty, and Robert Downey Junior is delightfully devious as Lewis Strauss, the man who sets Oppenheimer on the path to his ultimate destiny. The film boasts a massive cast that positively bristles with A listers, so many it feels pointless to mention them all – but I’ll make an exception for the assured performance of Matt Damon as Lt General Leslie Groves, the man who appointed Oppenheimer to oversee the Manhattan Project.

The screenplay, written by Nolan, sweeps confidently backwards and forwards through Oppenheimer’s chronology, never confusing and constantly throwing out disturbing questions about the nature of mankind’s eternal hubris. The potential danger that the complicated science might be hard to follow is not allowed to become a problem.

Ultimately, the central character emerges as a martyr, a brilliant man encouraged and seduced by the powers that be, then rejected and used as their scapegoat. Murphy’s chiselled features seem to stare out of that giant screen as if appealing for understanding for the torture he’s going through, the awful weight of responsibility resting on those narrow shoulders. I know little about Oppenheimer before I see this film and am now fascinated to learn more.

Oppenheimer keeps me hooked throughout and sometimes does the near impossible, creating suspense for an event I already know the outcome of. While this doesn’t quite measure up to Nolan’s finest work, it’s nonetheless an impressive film that deserves the plaudits it’s receiving.

And if it isn’t quite as assured as it’s shocking pink stablemate, well, this is a much tougher tale to tell… and a harder one to stomach.

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney

A Quiet Place: Part Two

04/05/21

Cineworld

A Quiet Place was, in many ways, an extraordinary film. The levels of tension it generated led to a new phenomenon in multiplexes across the world – audiences actually being afraid to munch their popcorn or slurp their soft drinks too loudly, for fear of attracting those audio-activated monsters to their auditorium. The main question in my mind when a second instalment was mooted was simply this: can they possibly hope to pull off the trick for a second time? Well, to a large degree, they have, and this despite the fact that (spoiler alert!) a major character was killed off at the end of the first movie.

Part Two opens with a flashback to Day One of the alien invasion, as Lee Abbott (writer/director/actor John Krasinski) wanders to a baseball game in his hometown, where his son, Marcus (Noah Jupe), is just about to step up to the plate. Then there’s some commotion in the skies above them and, before you can yell, ‘Scarper!” those nasty reptiles arrive on the scene and start killing people. All hell breaks loose and the focus moves from Lee to his daughter, Regan (Millicent Simmonds). We see much of the ensuing carnage through her viewpoint. Long sequences are enacted in total silence – Regan is hearing impaired – and with brilliant use of this device, the resulting action is a masterclass of impeccable timing and effective jump-scares.

Then we cut back to where we left off in Part One. Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and her three children – one of them a newborn baby – are forced to wander off the silent path they’ve so painstakingly built to go in search of other survivors. Eventually they find one in the shape of Emmett (Cillian Murphy), a former friend of Lee’s, a man who is himself mourning the death of his wife and children. Can Evelyn persuade to forget his misery long enough to help her? And what’s the point if life is going to be the miserable existence that they’re all toiling through?

Well, the thing is, Regan has this cunning plan, one she’s convinced can give humans a competitive edge over the creatures that have invaded their planet. But making it work isn’t going to be easy…

Once again, the AQP team manage to raise the suspense to almost unbearable levels and at times I find myself holding my breath as the next nail-biting sequence unfolds. Okay, so this time out, there are a few implausibilities in the mix. In quieter moments, I find myself asking questions like, ‘Do these guys ever get to eat anything?’ Or, ‘How can Evelyn generate enough milk for that baby if she’s not getting any nutrition?’ and ‘How come the aliens only ever (okay, usually) arrive one at a time?’

And… while I’m being picky, Krasinski does pitch us a few too many cross-cut sequences where what’s happening in one scene mirrors the action in another one happening miles away. The first time you see it, it’s really impressive, but Part 2 is a little over-reliant on this conceit. And… if I’m really honest, the central message about the children needing to measure up to their fearless father is hammered home a little too forcefully for comfort.

But look, here’s the bottom line. As an immersive cinematic experience, A Quiet Place: Part Two does deliver on its main mission to thoroughly terrorise viewers – and that’s this series’ raison d’etre, surely? Emily Mortimer’s recent announcement that AQP is going to be a trilogy makes me sigh a little. Hardly anyone ever manages a successful hat trick, but of course, that’s all somewhere in the future. We’ll see.

For now, why not pop along to your socially distanced cinema and raise your stress levels even more than they already are? Come on, you know you want to.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

Film Bouquets 2018

Bouquets&Brickbats

2018 has yielded a lot of interesting films, and it’s been hard to choose which most deserve Bouquets. Still, we’ve managed it, and here – in order of viewing – are those that made the cut.

Downsizing

Downsizing 2

Alexander Payne’s brilliant satire had its detractors, mostly people who had expected a knockabout comedy – but we thought it was perfectly judged and beautifully played by Matt Damon and Hong Chau.

Coco

A dazzling, inventive and sometimes surreal love letter to Mexico, this Pixar animation got everything absolutely right, from the stunning artwork to the vibrant musical score. In a word, ravishing.

The Shape of Water

Guillermo del Toro’s spellbinding fantasy chronicled the most unlikely love affair possible with great aplomb. Endlessly stylish, bursting with creativity, it also featured a wonderful performance from Sally Hawkins.

Lady Bird

This semi-autobiographical story featured Saoirse Ronan as a self-centred teenager, endlessly at war with her harassed mother (Laurie Metcalfe). Scathingly funny but at times heart-rending, this was an assured directorial debut from Greta Gerwig.

I, Tonya

Imagine Good Fellas on ice skates and you’ll just about have the measure of this stunning biopic of ice skater Tonya Harding, built around an incandescent performance from Margot Robbie, and featuring a soundtrack to die for.

A Quiet Place

This film had audiences around the world too self-conscious to unwrap a sweet or slurp their cola. Written and directed by John Kransinski and starring Emily Blunt, it was one of the most original horror films in a very long time – and we loved it.

The Breadwinner

Set in Kabul, this stunning film offered a totally different approach to animation, and a heart-wrenching tale of a young woman’s fight for survival in a war-torn society. To say that it was gripping would be something of an understatement.

American Animals

Based on a true story and skilfully intercutting actors with real life protagonists, Bart Layton’s film was a little masterpiece that gleefully played with the audience’s point of view to create something rather unique.

Bad Times at the El Royale

Drew Goddard’s noir tale brought together a brilliant cast in a unique location, and promptly set about pulling the rug from under our feet, again and again. There was a superb Motown soundtrack and a career making performance from Cynthia Erivo.

Wildlife

Based on a Richard Ford novel, this subtle but powerful slow-burner was the directorial debut of Paul Dano and featured superb performances from Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal and newcomer, Ed Oxenbould.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The Coen brothers were in exquisite form with this beautifully styled Western, which featured six separate tales of doom and despair, enlivened by a shot of dark humour. But, not for the first (or the last) time, we heard those dreaded words ‘straight to Netflix.’

Roma

Another Netflix Original (and one that’s hotly tipped for the Oscars), this was Alfonso Cuaron’s lovingly crafted semi-autobiographical tale off his childhood in Mexico, and of the nanny who looked after him and his siblings. It was absolutely extraordinary.

Philip Caveney & Susan Singfield

Mary Poppins Returns

23/12/18

Sporting a ‘what it says on the can’ title, Mary Poppins Returns is a thoroughly decent and handsomely mounted sequel to one of Disney’s most iconic films. I’ll ‘fess up right here and now and say that I don’t hold the original movie in the kind of esteem that some of my friends evidently do – but I entirely understand that, with its combination of whimsy and fantasy, it’s become a popular Christmas perennial.

The sequel takes place in depression-era London, some twenty years after the events of the first film, where the Banks children have grown up to a rather more depressing reality than they’ve been used to. Michael (Ben Whishaw) is a recently bereaved widower with three adorable young children to look after, while his sister, Jane (Emily Mortimer), has devoted her life to working for worthy causes. Michael hasn’t been too diligent about paying the bills and is now in danger of losing the beloved family home to the very bank he works for, after failing to keep up the repayments on a loan. The bank’s dastardly new manager, Wilkins (Colin Firth), is taking every step to ensure that the family home will soon be subject to repossession.

Into this troubled scenario, floats Mary (Emily Blunt), hanging onto the tail of a passing kite. Blunt is perhaps the logical actor to fill those famous red shoes, but her incarnation is sterner and, it has be said, a good deal more mischievous than her predecessor. She is clearly in cahoots with local lamplighter, Jack (Lin Manuel-Miranda), and together the two of them lead the Banks children into a whole series of magical situations.

If this sounds familiar, it ought to. The sequel sticks pretty closely to the format of the first film, replete with song and dance numbers – one of which is rather more fruity than you’d ever have expected from Julie Andrews – cleverly animated sequences (an underwater spectacle is perhaps the standout) and brief appearances from high calibre guest stars like Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury and a very spry Dick Van Dyke.

As I said, it’s all decently done, but perhaps, in the end, that over-familiarity works against it. Nothing here comes as a surprise and some of the plot strands are so needlessly over-complicated, they can only be solved by Mary – but she does have an infuriating habit of hanging back until the last possible moment. Also, sadly, none of the songs here are quite as memorable as the likes of Go Fly A Kite or A Spoonful of Sugar.

If you’re looking for a suitable Christmas film for all the family, this is probably the logical one to aim for, but be warned, you may not come out singing one of the songs.

3.6 stars

Philip Caveney

A Quiet Place

09/04/18

It’s hard in this day and age to come up with a completely original idea for a film, but writer/director John Krasinski has certainly engineered a refreshing twist on a much-used idea with A Quiet Place.

The action takes place in an alternative America, one that has been overrun – not by zombies, or a raging epidemic – but by predatory alien creatures. And yes, I’ll grant you, this still doesn’t sound like something you haven’t already seen many times before. The creatures are never named and we are given no information about where they came from or how they rose to power. This is entirely deliberate and I love the fact that the filmmakers judge us capable of joining the dots on this. The aliens are completely blind and apparently have no sense of smell, but what they do have is highly developed hearing. Which means that, if you’re hoping to stay alive in this world, everything must be done in absolute silence. And I mean everything.

In the film’s powerful opening, we meet the Abbott family, Evelyn (Emily Blunt), her husband, Lee (Krasinski), and their three children, one of whom, Regan (Millicent Simmonds), is completely deaf and therefore has even more worries than the others, since she isn’t always aware when she’s actually making a noise. The family have ventured out of their remote house in search of medical supplies. We learn very quickly how complex this new world is. The family go everywhere barefoot, walking along trails of pre-laid sand, because even the sound of a breaking twig can spell doom for them. They have developed their own sign-language, their own way of doing ordinary household duties. And, as they quickly learn to their cost, battery-powered toys are not a good thing to pick up on their travels.

From this point, the film moves on in time. Evelyn is now pregnant. And of course, giving birth to a child really isn’t the quietest process in the world…

What we’re watching here, is, to all intents and purposes, a silent movie – and, as the film leaps nimbly from one incredibly tense sequence to the next, it’s this very quality that allows Krasinki to wrack the tension up to almost unbearable levels. And that’s what feels so fresh about this idea, so effective. This, by the way, is definitely a film to be watched with an audience. It won’t be anything like as suspenseful when you’re sitting at home, with the option of breaking for a coffee whenever things become a bit too stressful. In a cinema, there’s a palpable tension as the audience suffers in collective silence along with the Abbots – particularly with Evelyn, who goes through several levels of personal hell in this.

A word of warning. Don’t be the person gleefully chomping your way through a big tub of popcorn as the drama unfolds – not unless you want to be the most hated person in the cinema. My phone, which was switched to ‘vibrate only,’ went off in the middle of this and managed to sound to my startled ears like an express train thundering through an abandoned station.

A Quiet Place is, in many ways, a small film – a tiny cast, a couple of locations and a relatively short running time, which seems to positively sprint by – but it leaves a powerful impression. Hear that noise as you leave the cinema? It’s the sound of the entire audience letting out a breath of relief.

This is highly recommended viewing – and it’s quietly feminist too – though possibly not the ideal film to watch if you happen to be pregnant.

Just saying.

4.6 stars

Philip Caveney

The Girl on the Train

10/10/16

The Girl on the Train‘s transition from page to screen was inevitable: Paula Hawkins’ novel has been a huge hit, its popularity earning its author over ten million dollars, and pretty much guaranteeing that this film adaptation will attract a large audience.

It’s a thriller, of sorts, unpicking the tangled lives of three women. Rachel (Emily Blunt) is a tragic figure, an alcoholic, obsessed with her ex-husband, Tom (Justin Theroux), and the baby she never had. Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) is Tom’s new wife, and Megan (Haley Bennett), is a neighbour who works as Tom and Anna’s nanny (yes, they do have a baby) and seems to have the perfect life – at least, as far as Rachel can tell from what she glimpses from the train. Let’s be honest, the story stretches credulity at times, and it’s kind of irritating that the women are all defined by their motherhood – or lack thereof. It verges on the histrionic in places, and there are moments where it lacks pace or drive. But, where it works, it does work well.

There’s a change of location: we’re in New York instead of London, but this isn’t detrimental to the film. In fact, the cinematography is lovely; the contrasts between the urban mayhem and the glassy smoothness of the lake help add a layer of eeriness and tension to the piece. And the shift is only geographical: the social and sexual mores of affluent white suburbanites seem similar in both locales.

Emily Blunt in particular deserves some accolades: she absolutely convinces as the drunken, broken Rachel, desperately searching for a way back to herself. And there’s a stellar supporting cast, including the ever fabulous Allison Janney and the ‘why-doesn’t-she-do-more?’ Lisa Kudrow.

Overall, then, it’s kind of… okay. There’s a soggy middle section where your mind might wander, but you’ll be pulled back in for the rather racier (if somewhat predictable) ending.

If you liked the book, you’ll probably like this.

3.8 stars

Susan Singfield

Sicario

16/010/15

‘Cancel that holiday in Mexico!’

That would seem to be the overriding message of Denis Villeneauve’s white-knuckle ride of a thriller in which FBI operative, Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) finds herself mixed up in the violent world of the Mexican drug cartels. Assigned to work alongside Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and the mysterious Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro, looking increasingly like Brad Pitt’s Puerto Rican twin) she starts off with high hopes and good intentions, as the team work their way towards the Mister Big who is responsible for the murder of hundreds of innocent people; but she soon discovers that, in this shady operation, the good guys are pretty much indistinguishable from the bad ones.

Blunt, of course, cut her action chops on the seriously underrated Edge of Tomorrow and she’s on excellent form here – but it must be said, that Taylor Sheridan’s script is incredibly misogynistic. Poor Kate is beaten, throttled and crushed at every opportunity and as the one character in the film with any apparent sense of decency, the film’s bleak conclusion seems to bray the fact that women should keep their nibs out and leave the rough stuff to the big boys. And wouldn’t it be nice if, just for once, a character’s motivations weren’t based around his desire to revenge himself on the man who killed his wife and daughter?

This is a shame, because in most other respects the film works brilliantly – there are tense shootouts aplenty, gripping covert operations and a nightmarish vision of Juarez that certainly won’t make it into the holiday brochures. But when the film’s central character is a strong woman, trying to stand tall in a male-dominated environment, her eventual failure to do so does seem suspiciously like a missed opportunity.

3.8 stars

Philip Caveney

Bouquets & Brickbats

Theatre – Film – Comedy – Food

Emily Blunt

The Fall Guy

Oppenheimer

A Quiet Place: Part Two

Film Bouquets 2018

Mary Poppins Returns

A Quiet Place

The Girl on the Train

Sicario