Doctor Strange (Scott Derrickson, 2016)

The latest addition to the franchise juggernaut that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe sees Benedict Cumberbatch take on the role of Strange, a brilliant and arrogant neurosurgeon who loses effective use of his hands in a car crash and eventually finds new purpose as a practitioner of magic after travelling, in Batman origin fashion, to Nepal to be reborn. The origin story is both a necessary chore and yet also a blessing, as when handled well, such as here, it allows some degree of calm and actual distinctive plot before the inevitable CGI mayhem once things have been set up. Admittedly, the reality-blending CGI, in a sort of Inception with ADHD and on steroids fashion, is very impressive, but there's far too much of it to take in properly and far more than the drama of the story requires, even if extra-dimensional menaces are involved. Still, Cumberbatch takes to the role like a duck to water and is ably supported by a distinctly non-American cast, provided you're prepared to make allowance for the fact that none of them is actually remotely Nepalese, quelle surprise. 
It passes by divertingly and wittily enough, but I don't see much mileage left in the character after his ludicrously rapid ascension to top dog status in the mystical realm, a fact which is obviously of no concern at all to the commercial powers that be.

5/10

Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)

Jarmusch, a poet of blue-collar smalltown Americana, returns to his knitting with a bare story of a humdrum week in the life of a bus driver who sees poetry in the everyday minutiae of the world around him. The days unfold with small variations around fixed points such as his nightly walk with the dog to a bar, and show the director's gift at picking out the little character quirks that make commonplace people of interest. There are recurring motifs, but they're not rammed down the viewer's throat to convert them into explicit metaphors for anything: it's all about allusion rather than definition. This is both liberating in its non-prescriptiveness and also frustrating in that it's so non-committal, just like its diffident titular character. Still, it's a welcome return from a filmmaker who continues to bring something singular to the table when so many others lose their distinctive virtues under the temptation of conformity to be bigger and faster.

7/10

Absolutely Fabulous:The Movie (Mandie Fletcher, 2016)

The history of great British sitcoms making the transition to the big screen is largely an ignoble one. Too often, the conversion from a lean half-hour format to having to create a full story arc, complete with character intros, the quest and the denouement, has hampered the essence of what made them work on the small-screen.
Absolutely Fabulous does tangibly suffer under this yoke too, but by and large manages to circumvent the problem by taking the opportunity to cram in as many celebrity cameos as humanly possible. Ironically of course, the luvvy nature of all this buddying-up between Saunders, Lumley and their showbiz pals chipping in is the very thing that is meant to be satirised by the film.
Nevertheless, the terrible twins are on fine form, and the cursory nature of the plot whereby they flee to Cannes, naturellement, after being accused of killing Kate Moss, takes second place to their trademark excesses against taste and decency. Lumley is a particular hoot, more grotesque than ever. Provided you take it as a last opportunity to enjoy the classic characters and a bombardment of choice one-liners, it just about works.

6/10

John Wick (Chad Stahelski, 2014)

Keanu Reeves is a retired hitman who gets sucked back into the killing after the death of his wife from illness and the unwise decision of Russian gangsters (the modern-day replacement for boring old Italian mobsters) to kill his dog while stealing his car. Then it's bloody vengeance all the way through, to an extent that makes John Rambo look like a paean to pacifism. You actually start feeling sorry for the hordes of hapless goons like you would when considering the thousands of innocent contractors that would have died on the Death Star.
John Wick, a man with a name fit for a local village butcher, does indeed butcher non-stop for the rest of the film and no hail of bullets from all directions can stop him. The film's greatest inventiveness therefore has to be in the range of ways that he dispatches his foes to rack up a body count of 77, each one shown individually. Yes, someone counted that and I'm glad they did, though their motive for doing so might be different from mine. It means that by the holy law of modern action sequels, the current one has to beat that. God help us all, since it means the viewers too will probably have to have their necks broken or take several rounds to the head to meet the quota.

4/10

A Million Ways to Die in the West (Seth MacFarlane, 2014)

So, MacFarlane does the western, with himself as the lead as a hapless, motor-mouthed sheep farmer coming up against Liam Neeson's ruthless killer and Charlize Theron as a plucky love interest. And as you might expect, it's Family Guy again with an 'adult' licence to shove in many, many more fart and sex gags. Despite that lack of ambition, it does occasionally raises a smile when MacFarlane's modern pop culture take on the Wild West collides with historical realities and the cliches of the genre at the same time, but there just aren't enough of these, and it consequently outstays its welcome well before halfway.

4/10

iBoy (Adam Randall, 2017)

Netflix continues to churn out new productions, and the results are mixed. This sci-fi/urban crime blend tries for novelty, as a boy shot while witnessing a burglary in a housing estate develops the ability to tap into any electrical system and uses that to wreak justice on the perpetrators. It could have worked, if the execution wasn't so half-baked with its barrage of 'cyberspace' made to look cool and implausible developments - scarcely more credible than the Scarlett Johansson mess Lucy - and some of the usual suspects of the modern lo-fi British gangster film weren't shoehorned in to give the lad something to fight against. Basically, it's adolescent fare for an undemanding public.

4/10

Morgan (Luke Scott, 2016)

There is starting to be a real recent surfeit of artificial human stories, relatively well represented by Ex Machina and having diminishing returns after that. Morgan starts off on the same general basis, with a technologically-engineered young girl being assessed for her worthiness to continue existing after violent incidents and then eventually get to Terminator country in survival horror mode as she goes out of control. It keeps you following simply because of working in so many twists of focus and plot, but ends up unrewarding in terms of fresh ideas and therefore deserving of its mediocre reception.

5/10

L'Économie du couple (Joachim Lafosse, 2016)

Bérénice Bejo is in danger of being typecast as a tight-lipped mother harassed by fickle husbands after a virtual repetition of her role in The Past. It's not that she does this anything less than convincingly, and the film has real depth and a different than usual dimension too as a marriage that has ended goes through its last stutters and all that remains is acrimonious financial settlements. It's painfully truthful and some scenes really hit home with jarring force when the viewer's sympathies swing between the two leads, but not really cinema, more a documentary.

6/10

The Fourth State (Dennis Gansel, 2012)

It sets itself out to be a film in the 'Bourne' mould, but falls almost at once over a lack of realism as the lead character goes through a succession of Russian stereotypes from hyper-rich models to vodka binges. That much may even be life-like, but sticking him in a Treblinka hellhole can't be, no matter what you believe of their state. No wonder that it had to come with a disclaimer at the start disavowing any of the characters and events being real for fear of being prosecuted or killed - unless that's purely a promotional tool. Although some years down the line from the film, that can't be so far off either.
Regardless, it proceeds on a Liam Neeson actioner model staggering under the combined handicaps of having Poles, Germans and Croatians speak English or Russian and Moritz Bleibtreu as the German journalist out of his depth in an evil Moscow, constantly open-mouthed and bemused. And then ends with no real resolution.

5/10

Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)

Linklater's stock-in-trade is tales of aimless suburban Americans somehow muddling through real life, and Boyhood gained accolade upon accolade by virtue of being the epitome of his world view and technique.
It is given particular interest through the unusual background of having been shot over 11 years with the same actors, following a boy's childhood and adolescence as his parents divorce, recouple with others and move house again and again. Despite any acquaintance you may have with the director's style, it will still come as a shock how little of dramatic magnitude actually happens beyond the normal twists and turns of life. It's both purgatively refreshing, and yet at the same time rather dull in the end over the best part of three hours, with utterly lifelike conversations leading nowhere in particular, as they would, and the lead character mumbling and shuffling from one year to the next, so obviously Linklater projecting his own childhood onto the persona, who of course has to have unformulated artistic ambitions. All that said, I'll always appreciate a film that is this honest and gives you room to breathe. Just don't expect anything revelatory: anyone telling you otherwise is badly contaminated by the prevalent overdramatised dross, and that includes most jaded critics.

7/10

I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore (Macon Blair, 2017)

A woman reaches the end of her tether with life after having been burgled and sets out, with the aid of a martial arts-devoted geekish neighbour to recover her goods, which pretty quickly lands her in hot water.
It's a simple idea done with some wry humour and realism too, although the ending does momentarily threaten to descend into schlockiness as it veers towards Grand Guignol. What saves the bacon of the low-budget enterprise is really the likable leads and not taking itself too seriously, although it's hardly a cutting commentary on social norms, as some critics would elevate it to be.

6/10

The Fifth Estate (Bill Condon, 2013)

This is the story of how the WikiLeaks organisation came to be, successfully revealed abuses of power around the world for a number of years and then bit off more than it could chew in taking on the American government over the publication of thousands upon thousands of confidential diplomatic cables and Middle Eastern war records.
Benedict Cumberbatch, a natural choice for the role with his history of semi-autistic geniuses, portrays the organisation's controversial founder Julian Assange with unerring verisimilitude, with his tics, impatience, arrogance and zeal as he descends into near-megalomania on his messianic crusade to expose everything without any editing or regard for consequences, trampling over those closest to him (namely, a long-suffering Daniel Brühl playing his confidante and conscience).
The film seems to conclude that Assange is essentially a force for good, but one that has gone out of control. The fact that the players are all still around lends it immediacy, but at the same time this means that it is left frustratingly unfulfilling as a dramatic work.
To seek to increase viewer engagement with a vast subject which the medium cannot possibly show the full import of, the stock devices of spy films and techno-thrillers are used, namely constantly jumping around global locations and digital visualisations of cyberspace. They do help in taking us through the story, but ultimately there is a prevailing lack of focus when it comes to deciding what it really wants to say: is it about the personality of Assange, the significance of the facts exposed, or the bullying tactics employed against him by Western governments? It wants to cover all of these, and rather falls between several stools in the attempt.

5/10