All about Tom. Maybe he's got too old at 62 to be a believable hero. And why show off his bare upper body when, despite all the gym work, it cannot disguise it's age. I thought this was the least successful of all the Mission Impossible films. You know it's all about Tom when he goes off on his own, leaving the rest of the team to do something different. Especially when the Hayley Atwell and Simon Pegg parts are the best. It's all a bit predictable, lots of fun, but the Pinewood under water sequence goes on far too long. Actually the whole film is too long, cutting out half an hour would have been much better. Especially the sequence on the plane. Did nobody tell Tom less is more. I did like Katy M O'Brian as Kodiak and Hannah Waddingham as the Admiral. Now that is good casting. See interview in June's Sight and Sound magazine and my post of 27th May.
I will always go to see a Wes Anderson movie. See post of 27th May 2025. This was, perhaps, even more bonkers than normal. He seems to have written it for the lead, Benecio del Toro. There is, as always, a huge amount of dialogue, it's sometimes hard to keep up. Maybe you have to see it more than once. But the production design is always glorious. Hard to say the same for the story. However, Anderson always surrounds himself with the cream of acting talent. I especially liked Alex Jennings in a small role as Broadcloth, a servant. Very little to say but conveys so much with his face. (We saw him in The Liar in 1990 at The Old Vic). Mia Threapleton (daughter of Kate Winslet) was great as Sister Liesel and Michael Cera never better. Even our very own Jason Watkins turns up.
This is the first major film from Nadia Conners, her screenplay and direction promise much for the future. I was going to say that it felt more like a play when I then read in May's Sight and Sound magazine that it was "originally conceived as a stage play, the film is heavy on theatrical conceits". In the theatre it may not have been seen by many. Even my local cinema had it playing just one afternoon. However, on film we are close up withe the character's insecurities, whether high on drink or drugs or not. It all takes place one evening as Rose (an excellent Elizabeth Reaser) and her husband Sammy host a party in swanky Hollywood Hills. Attending are mostly all middle aged affluent residents of the city. These include the obnoxious Rufus Sewel. Not invited is ninety year old Helen (Lois Smith) who turns up, seemingly lost. She is rescued by Rose who maybe seems more interested in Lois than any of the invitees. Lois inhabits the film as a kind of ghost. But in the background are the old tensions between Rose and her husband who seems permanently angry. We find out more later. He only seems to relax when it's his turn to sit down with Lois. Then who should turn up but Lucien (Pedro Pascal) an old lover of Rose. Tensions rise. More drink is consumed. Adam Nayman in Sight and Sound calls it "a small but real achievement". There are just so few of these movies around.
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