The title on the poster is in capitals, but everywhere else it is not. So what is writer/director Alex Garland up to this time? Well, men is already plural so it's not that. The internet is no help at all. Toilet doors normally say MEN, so it's something to do with men only? It's just the director up to his old tricks and no-one but me is interested. The Independent called it " a social thriller wrapped in a folk horror story". But it's not really a horror film, more scary on an intellectual level. A feeling of anticipation and dread.
Jessie Buckley is now a fully fledged film star, taking on a challenging role as Harper where she is never out of the picture. Staying in an isolated house, on the run from her demons, they may have followed her here. In any case it is Rory Kinnear in multiple rolls of MEN who is scary. Harper goes downhill, if she was ever on the level. Craziness ensues. Someone said it had a "perplexing climax". I thought it was great.
Alex Garland's Ex-Machina is one of my favourite films so I sought out his earlier Annihilation on DVD. All his films are unsettling and this was no exception. A proper sci fi movie and an Alien encounter. Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac star and I always remember Jennifer Jason Leigh from eXistenZ. The "music" from Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow adds to tension and unease. But then out of the blue up pops the superb Helplessly Hoping from Crosby, Stills and Nash. Wow!
Who would have thought that a Top Gun movie would have such a great script and a decent story. With Tom Cruise on likeable top form. It was when those opening bars from The Who's Wont get Fooled Again I was sold. A pushover for such songs in movies. Jennifer Connolly added charm, intelligence and maturity to the high jinks going on at Top Gun School. Unlike most critics, I was not overwhelmed by the flight sequences, but the mission was great at only a 2 minutes countdown. And then the post mission sequence was unexpectedly brilliant.
There is one moment in Good Luck To You, Leo Grande where Emma Thomson loses her permanent serious, almost sad expression. She is forced to dance like an 18 year old. She has never been that girl. Ever. Until now. I was completely sold.
Emma Thomson is superb as Nancy and thank goodness Daryl McCormack just about keeps up. This is basically a two hander that is almost like a filmed play. But somehow being up close and personal with these two was actually great on the big screen. The screenplay obviously had to be good and Katy Brand has given it her all. Poignant, sad, funny and desperate, director Sophie Hyde has made something special. But the film exists because of a peerless Thomson, a tour de force, Oscar worthy, her "warmth and intelligence enlivens an understated and masterfully modulated performance". A proper grown up movie.
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