Widows & Suspiria

A double bill for this post, with a review of both Widows and Suspiria. Enjoy!

Widows

Director Steve McQueen has taken an interesting route in his career, having started making films like Hunger and Shame before heading towards Oscar territory with 12 Years a Slave and now into genre filmmaking with Widows. The film was advertised as a heist movie, so be warned that - although the very basic premise is that four thieves wives finish of heist after their husbands are killed - this is not a heist movie. There’s a whole lot going on here: political tensions, class tensions, racial tensions, all set to the backdrop of Chicago. When the film first finished I was satisfied with the result, I had enjoyed the ride. Upon further thinking I realised that there was a lot of stuff in the film that either didn’t make sense, or just didn’t add anything to the story. This film almost has too much going on, it wants to say too much and in doing so, certain elements feel like they have been dropped in order to be topical rather than add anything to the story. We spend large chucks of time with characters only for them disappear for forty minutes and then reappear later. I felt like the widows themselves didn’t actually become the protagonists of the film until halfway through and even now I would argue this was presented more as an ensemble piece. Performances are fantastic; with the stand outs being Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Daniel Kaluuya and Colin Farrel. Though I feel like I rarely found out anything about the characters, Farrel seems to the only one with any sense of history. Debicki is the only character with an arc because we have no idea what kind of person Davis’s character was before the events of the film and despite how good Kaluuya is, his character just ends up being a footnote. McQueen obviously knows what he’s doing; there are shots and angles in this film that would never have been done by someone less artistically inclined with this kind of script. Despite the great cinematography and brilliant performances, this film just doesn’t hit all the high notes it sets out to reach.

3.5.5

Suspiria

It’s been a few days since I saw this film and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, but I’ll try. It’s a remake of the 1977 Italian film of the same name - I liked the original but didn’t love it. I came to it late and although it looks gorgeous, certain elements felt dated and I had a hard time investing in any of the characters. The 2018 remake has the same basic premise but is more Suspiria in vibe and atmosphere than name. It completely sucks you in with its cold yet beautiful scenery, slow pace and hypnotic score composed by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. There’s no mistaking it as Suspiria; it might not be brightly coloured but the experimental camera movements that catch you off guard create that eerie vibe and the creativity that comes with the visual elements really go against everything you expect. It’s a horror film that really unsettles you, something feels off in every scene but not in a bad way. For the long running time I was completely enthralled, totally mesmerised. I only remember one or two moments when I wanted the film to hurry up a bit - not bad for the two-and-a-half-hour experience. My favourite addition to this film was the emphasis on the dance scenes, this time they are staples of the film. The witchcraft is fully on display as they usually depict two scenes at once - one mesmerising, one horrific - they are a marvel to watch and are the best moments in the film. It takes the original and makes it more polished, gives it more to say and leaves the audience with more to think about. You can tell everyone involved is working their hardest to make this film worthy of the original. Director Luca Guadagnino oozes creativity into the narrative whilst his cast work wonders on the performances. If you thought the Fifty Shades series would ruin Dakota Johnson then think again, she’s never been better than in this. Tilda Swinton better get some Academy recognition for playing what could have been most of the characters in this film and just being utterly incredible. The film is absolutely nuts at points but is an absolute blast to watch; it will leave you in a state of confusion as you try and process what you’ve just witnessed but I think I loved it...

5/5

What did you think of the films? Love them hate them, let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

Suicide Squad

So you've probably heard by now that Suicide Squad hasn't been going down that well critically and a lot of audiences, including myself, went into the film knowing this and were interested in seeing why so many had disliked it. Now Suicide Squad is by no means a perfect movie but it isn't an awful one either. I came out of the cinema not hating it but realising that it had many a flaw and for the most part was quite disjointed. As an overall experience its a fun film with a dumb plot, it's not until you look a bit closer, a bit like The Amazing Spider-Man 2, that you realise that it just doesn't make that much sense.

Suicide Squad follows a team of super villains who are assembled by the government to clean up a supernatural disaster of their own making. The film boasts an impressive cast with the stand outs being Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Viola Davis and Jared Leto.

Now I went into this film most looking forward to seeing Margot Robbie's portrayal of Harley Quinn, a crazy character affiliated with The Joker. For the most part I was not disappointed, Robbie looked the part and sounded the part, bringing the crazy fun character to life on the big screen for the first time. She is easily the stand out of the film and one of the more interesting performances to watch. I'm not fully happy with how she was represented, I still had my problems, they're mainly linked to the way she is over sexualised in the film (even more so I believe than the Arkham games), not every character mentioned how hot Will Smith was! She has a lot more involved relationship with The Joker that didn't always feel right at times, though mainly from his side not hers but we'll get on to him later. There's a few dodgy dialogue moments in the third act but to be fair the third act ain't that great anyway. Margot Robbie does a great job and hopefully will be given a chance to add more depth to her character in another film.

Will Smith as Deadshot was a nice surprise. I've always liked Will Smith so it wasn't his acting ability I was surprised by but it was that his character was pretty much the heart of the film. He's given the more caring backstory and the film leans very heavily on him and Margot Robbie as the main characters, which works because they're the best actors but it's also a shame because it never really represented the ensemble cast like it should have done.

Viola Davis as Amanda Waller is perfect casting however, if you look into the nitty grity of the film then you realise that her ideas are very stupid and don't make much sense. I look forward to seeing her play a more well written version of the character in the future. A lot of the characters are similar in this way, nothing bad with the performances, it's just that they aren't fleshed out enough or add to the story. There were times when Killer Croc and Katana turned up and I had completely forgotten they were in the film. And poor Cara Delevingne who plays The Enchantress, has still yet to have been given a role to show off any acting chops. On the plus side Jai Courtney is fine as Captain Boomerang.

Now onto the character that most people wanted to see, The Joker. What you've heard is true, he isn't in it a whole bunch (remember it's not his film), but the biggest shame is that he doesn't add a lot, if anything, either. Now Jared Leto's performance is cool and different but it never felt like 'my' Joker. He never fully resembled my interpretation of the character. His take is interesting enough to make me want to see more but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a little disappointed if this is the Joker we're getting for the DC universe. He's very touchy-feely as well, very different to anything we've seen before and his character definitely seems to have fallen for Harley Quinn rather than just using her like in the comics. I can't help but feel that we should have met a Harley Quinn who was over The Joker and his abusive ways and more of her own independent character.

There's still fun to be had though, although a bit disjointed, the montage at the start showcasing the characters is cool and fun. There's some great action set pieces up until the video game feel of the third act. There are some jokes which is a relief and the small scenes with Batman showcase his badass-ness whilst leaving his murderous streak from Batman V Superman behind.

There's glimmers of a good film here and for the most part it's good fun, which should hopefully be enough to satisfy a summer audience, those of us hoping for more from our beloved comic book characters will probably be a bit disappointed but will also be thankful that it's not the complete train wreck that Batman V Superman was. I'm giving Suicide Squad a rating of 2.5/5.

I think this film just wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be, or maybe it did at one point but the higher ups then got involved. It's a weird time for Warner Bros and DC as their recent films haven't gone down as well as they were hoping for and I for one won't be rushing out to see Justice League when it releases next year. They still have a chance with Wonder Woman, I'm excited for that, I really hope they don't mess it up, the trailer looked great and there's some definite talent involved in front of and behind the camera.

What were your thoughts on the film? Was it as bad as you'd been hearing or a everything you had been hoping for? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!