SEPTEMBER 2022 - FILMS (CINEMA)

Six films seen in the month which was good going. 

All of them were enjoyed, some more than others, some more than I expected to and nothing I really disliked which was a bit of a result.

Ticket to Paradise (2022)

This was one of the ones I wasn't really expecting to enjoy, but I did. Rom-Coms aren't usually my vibe. Great cast, though with Clooney and Roberts and Kaitlyn Dever. She broke my heart in Unbelievable.

From Odeon website ...

DIRECTORS

Ol Parker

CAST

Lucas Bravo, Kaitlyn Dever, Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Billie Lourd

SYNOPSIS

Academy Award® winners George Clooney and Julia Roberts reunite on the big screen as exes who find themselves on a shared mission to stop their lovestruck daughter from making the same mistake they once made.

The Forgiven (2022)

Tense and gripping, outrageous and sad. The decadent West meets the East. Really, really good. 


From Odeon website ....

DIRECTORS

John Michael McDonagh

CAST

Jessica Chastain, Saïd Taghmaoui, Abbey Lee, Christopher Abbott, Caleb Landry Jones, Ismael Kanater, Alex Jennings, Ralph Fiennes, Matt Smith

SYNOPSIS

Speeding through the Moroccan desert to attend an old friend’s lavish weekend party, wealthy Londoners David and Jo Henninger (Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain) are involved in a tragic accident with a local teenage boy. Arriving late at the grand villa with the debauched party raging, the couple attempts to cover up the incident with the collusion of the local police. But when the boy’s father arrives seeking justice, the stage is set for a tension-filled culture clash in which David and Jo must come to terms with their fateful act and its shattering consequences.

Beast (2022)

This was one I thought I'd skip, but I had my arm twisted. I'm not a massive Idris Elba fan anymore, I just have to look at him now to feel annoyed. (I never said I was rational.) I have trouble buying into him as a loving family man. Sometimes it's hard the separate the character in the film from the actor playing the role. 

Exciting, a few scares and moments when I jumped. Better than I thought, though it was another stretch when he wrestled with the lion.

From Odeon website ...

DIRECTORS

Baltasar Kormákur

CAST

Iyana Halley, Leah Jeffries, Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley

SYNOPSIS

Sometimes the rustle in the bushes actually is a monster. Idris Elba (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, The Suicide Squad) stars in a pulse-pounding new thriller about a father and his two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator. Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll series, Maleficent), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them. Iyana Halley (The Hate U Give, This is Us series) plays Daniels’ 18-year-old daughter, Meredith, and Leah Sava Jeffries (Rel series, Empire series) plays his 13-year-old, Norah. From visceral, experiential filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur, the director of Everest and Universal Pictures’ 2 Guns and Contraband, Beast is produced by Will Packer, the blockbuster producer of Girls Trip, the Ride Along franchise, and ten movies that have opened No. 1 at the U.S. box office, including Night School, No Good Deed and Think Like a Man, by James Lopez, president of Will Packer Productions, and by Baltasar Kormákur. The film is written by Ryan Engle (Rampage, Non-Stop) from an original story by Jaime Primak Sullivan and is executive produced by Jaime Primak Sullivan and Bernard Bellew.

Fall (2022)

Tense, exciting, uncomfortable, scary. I was on edge throughout this. I'm not great with heights.

I need a medal just for watching it. Really good.

From Odeon website ...

DIRECTORS

Scott Mann

CAST

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mason Gooding, Grace Fulton, Virginia Gardner, Julia Pace Mitchell, Jasper Cole, Grace Caroline Currey

SYNOPSIS

A fast drop and a sudden stop awaits Becky (Grace Fulton, Shazam!) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner, Halloween) as they find themselves trapped 2,000 feet up an abandoned radio tower in the desert. Highly trained and resourceful, these climbers were still not ready for every eventuality. A series of unfortunate events see their gear and supplies taken from them and as temperatures rise and vultures begin to circle, the chance of survival begins to fall rapidly.

See How They Run (2022)

Reminded me a bit of Knives Out. Real comedy vibes, set around the stage production of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. I like Sam Rockwell on screen. Saoirse Ronan was really good as well. Good clean fun was had.

From Odeon website ...

DIRECTORS

Tom George

CAST

Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, Sian Clifford, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Charlie Cooper, Pippa Bennet-Warner, Pearl Chanda, Saoirse Ronan, Sam Rockwell, David Oyelowo, Reece Shearsmith

SYNOPSIS

In the West End of 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered. When world-weary Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and eager rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) takes on the case, the two find themselves thrown into a puzzling whodunit within the glamorously sordid theater underground, investigating the mysterious homicide at their own peril.

Don't Worry Darling (2022)

Definite Stepford Wives vibe here and at the end a touch of something else, which if I mention will possibly spoil things for both my readers. Florence Pugh is amazing. Despite the mxed reviews, I enjoyed this one.

From Odeon website ...

CAST

Harry Styles, Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde, Kiki Layne, Gemma Chan

SYNOPSIS

Alice (Pugh) and Jack (Styles) are lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950s societal optimism espoused by their CEO, Frank (Pine)—equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach—anchors every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia. While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, working on the “development of progressive materials,” their wives—including Frank’s elegant partner, Shelley (Chan)—get to spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their community. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is discretion and unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause. But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory, and why. Just how much is Alice willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in this paradise?

Rankings:

1. Fall

2. The Forgiven

3. Don't Worry Darling

4. Ticket to Paradise

5. See How They Run

6. Beast