Trap, Alien: Romulus and Touch

 

I very rarely miss a M Night Shyamalan movie. They are not always great, but most are. From The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, The Village to The Happening, The Village, Signs, Knock at the Cabin, Split, Glass and Old. He creates original screenplays (rare these days) and always directs with flair. Trap starts with a big set. A pop concert with apparently, a big star, perfect for Cooper (a hot wired Josh Hartnett) to take his his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) who is a big fan. But Cooper realises something is wrong., especially finding huge security back stage. Someone is trapped. The crowd scenes are impeccably staged and the atmosphere is tense from beginning to end. Hayley Mills pops up as a profiler, but really we follow Cooper nearly the whole time. Original and compelling as usual.

Alien: Romulus is a decent addition to the cannon. It is not that scary, thank goodness, as I avoid those sorts of films these days. Cailee Spaeny holds the movie together. I realised I had seen her in quite a few movies, from Bad Times at the El Royale, to On the Basis of Sex, Vice, Priscilla (where she was excellent) and Civil War. This film is quite claustrophobic as nearly all is in the spacecraft. Sometimes you wanted to go back to dry land. It certainly didn't last the two hours.  But towering above all the sub-plots is, typically, the character of the humanoid. Starting off as a quiet, hesitant and almost useless helper, to the opposite when his memory stick is swopped. He becomes a thrilling, positive, genius of a leader. It did make me smile.

From Iceland to London to Japan, Touch is obviously a quest for the elderly Kristopher s he  leaves his home country for the UK about to experience Covid lockdown. However most of the first part of the movie travels back in time to the sixties when, as a young man, he takes a job in a Japanese restaurant.  He becomes friends with the owner's daughter Miko. The link between the two stories is well constructed and the editing between the two works fine. In his home country we know he had a wife and children so we need to know what happened at the restaurant. The final part is quite sad but uplifting at the same time. I'm glad I found it.