'Book Club'

Four women, lifelong friends, who have engaged in a personal 'Book Club' for years are inspired by their latest book choice, 'Fifty Shades of Grey', to engage in self reflection of their lives and loves.

This is a pretty stock, standard, American comedy with obvious gags and situations and little subtlety. I got a few chuckles however the overwhelmingly middle and elder aged female audience around me laughed out loud a lot in apparent signs of recognition.

✮✮✮

'Mission: Impossible - Fallout'

'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' is the same old, same as, when Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) accepts another impossible mission, this time to retrieve stolen Plutonium cores from a group of anonymous gangsters referred to as the Twelve Apostles.

The usual spectacular chases through the streets of Paris and London and stunning mountain locales in Norway doubling in this instance for Indian Kashmir are a feature.

If you have seen the earlier episodes, you know what to expect.

✮✮✮½

'On Chesil Beach'

Florence (Saoirse Ronan) and Edward (Billy Howle) have arrived at their beachside hotel to commence their honeymoon. Both are nervous and inexperienced making their first steps into marriage a painful affair. Flashbacks show their courtship conducted despite the constraints of differing social backgrounds.

I think that the intention is to present 'On Chesil Beach' as a great romance albeit one tinged with sadness. However as portrayed in this film the best I can feel is sorry for this couple rather than sadness.

Some nice scenery.

✮✮½

'The Wife'

Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) learns that he has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. His wife Joan (Glenn Close) accompanies him to Stockholm for the award ceremony and related celebrations during which, and through flashbacks and action, her true role in her husband's success is revealed.

'The Wife' is a slow burn with the prime drama surfacing at the end.

✮✮✮✮

'Beirut'

In 1982 American diplomat Mason Skiles (John Hamm) returns to Beirut, where he was previously posted, when his skills as a negotiator are needed in a hostage situation.

This thriller seems a realistic portrayal of the murky world of Middle Eastern politics and diplomacy even if the images of the civil war affected seaside capital, once known as the Paris of the Middle East, appear more like the images of bombed out Syrian cities of recent times.

✮✮✮½

'Mama Mia! Here We Go Again'

'Mama Mia! Here We Go Again' is the sequel to 2008's box office smash 'Mama Mia!' and follows the same template of setting a plot to as many ABBA songs as the makers can squeeze in. With most, if not all, the most popular tunes having already been used in the original film this sequel has to make do with a number of lesser known numbers interspersed occasionally with the big hits like the title number, Dancing Queen and Waterloo. As it turns out even the lesser known ABBA tunes are...well...very tuneful.

The credits list no fewer than six writers including Richard Curtis who is the inspiration behind some of the most successful British comedies of recent times so it is puzzling that they have produced such a bland plot and more puzzling still that much of the script is lame.

However the sunny scenery and ABBA's infectious melodies eventually carry the day and the film ends on a high with its final scene and end credits.

✮✮½

'Ant-Man and the Wasp'

'Ant-Man and the Wasp' is the latest in the seemingly endless series of comic inspired hero and heroine movies.

The Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) are sent on a mission to retrieve (rescue) another Wasp lost in some form of a parallel universe. Standing in their way is Ghost Hannah John-Kamen) a hologram-like villainess.

The film is not high art but in having both a female hero and villain it certainly redresses Hollywood's  more traditional gender balance (or rather imbalance).

The performers don't take themselves too seriously and so the film is imbued with a reasonable amount of humour. The special effects are not over the top but they are modestly impressive.

✮✮✮

Foxtrot

Two Jewish themed films in two days. Coincidental.

'Foxtrot' is an Israeli film in three sections. In the first section, the parents of an Israeli soldier are visited with the news that their son has been killed in the line of duty. The father is initially stunned by the news and then suspicious about what actually happened to his son.

In the second section, the film reveals the nature of the duty the soldier was engaged in and in so doing portrays the wasteful, demeaning and destructive impact upon not only the soldiers but also the civilians with whom they come into contact.

The final section of the film shows the ironic and tragic truth of what has happened.

Slow and often static but worth the effort.

✮✮✮

Disobedience

Ronit (Rachel Weisz) returns to London from her workplace in New York following the death of her orthodox Rabbi father. Her reappearance sparks antagonism and suspicion amongst her friends and associates in the tight orthodox Jewish community which flares into outright anger when she is drawn into a forbidden relationship.

'Disobedience' contains excellent performances but it is a slow burn which won't appeal to everyone.

✮✮✮½

‘The Ice King’

'The Ice King' is a documentary about the life and career of British ice skater and performer John Curry who was one the first openly gay athletes.

Despite a sometimes stellar career and major achievements Curry's life seems a tale of missed and thwarted opportunities and ambitions. Quite an interesting film yet somehow like the subject's life,  I have the sense the work fails to adequately reflect the talent.

✮✮✮

‘Three Identical Strangers’

A student arrives for his first day at a new College and is astounded at the warmth of the welcome hugs, kisses and endearments he receives from complete strangers. When he meets his new room mate and receives a similar welcome he realises something everyone is confusing him for someone else. A few enquiries ensue and he is stunned to find he has an identical twin he never knew anything about. When this extraordinary occurrence receives national attention the 'twins' are further astounded to discover a third identical sibling. All three were adopted as babies to separate families.

This story seems fanciful yet this really happened. What is more this documentary about the triplets reveals extraordinary and troubling circumstances to their adoption and childhoods.

'Three Identical Strangers' is a fascinating, humorous and troubling documentary.

✮✮✮½

Two is a Family

Samuel (Omar Sy) is suddenly a single father. A former 'one night stand', Kristin (Clemence Poesy) dumps a baby daughter he didn't know he had fathered with him and disappears. Samuel tries to locate Kristin without success and raises the child himself. Eight years later Kristin re-enters their lives.

'Two Is A Family' is a bit of a mess. Apart from the dubious morality of the plot line, the film is not particularly interesting. The daughter is the only remotely endearing character.

✮½

‘Aurore’

'Aurore' (retitled 'I Got Life!') is a woman in midlife who is separated from her husband and whose daughter is pregnant. She is about to become a grandmother. Having lost her job after a row with a snooty cafe owner, Aurore runs into an old schoolmate with whom she had a school romance.

This French language romantic drama is is quite delightful with Agnes Jaoui sparkling in the title role.

✮✮✮½

‘The Marriage’

I would be pretty sure that 'The Marriage' is the first film I have ever seen made or even set in Albania.

It opens with a long, somewhat obscure, scene. A man and a woman are waiting with a number of others for some arrivals. Eventually a line of vehicles arrive and as do numerous people wearing white hazard protective clothing. It seems that the people have been waiting to identify and recover the remains of relatives; victims of war.

The man and the woman are engaged to be married and a friend of the groom arrives from France where he has been living for four years. Initially the three of them socialise but strains emerge as the true nature of the groom's friendship with this new arrival begin to surface.

A rather slow film which I imagine is more daring in its native country than it comes across in Australia. Provides an interesting glimpse into Albanian culture and life.

✮✮✮

Tea with the Dames

'Tea with the Dames' (made for television under the title 'Nothing Like a Dame') has four British actors, all of them honoured with Damehoods, sitting around a table discussing their lives and careers.

The situation comes across as a little artificial but it is variously a humorous, revealing and sad reflection of four artists in the twilights of their careers. I don't think there are first time revelations but a bonus in the film comes with flashbacks to their youthful days; a reminder of how they appeared  at the height of their freshness and beauty.

✮✮✮

The Bookshop

A widow (Emily Mortimer) decides to turn her home in a small seaside British town into a Bookshop. Resistance to this development comes from the town's society matron (Patricia Clarkson).

'The Bookshop' is nicely acted in that restrained British stiff upper lip way but it is slow and I found the ending to be unsatisfying.

Tully

Marlo (Charlize Theron) is a struggling mother of three. Between them, Marlo's hyper middle child, who is struggling at school, and her young baby are draining her of all energy. Marlo's husband Drew (Ron Livingston) is loving but useless in sharing the load with her.

Extraordinary help comes in the form of 'Tully'; a nanny seemingly organised by her brother and sister in law.

To record how the plot develops would be to give away the climactic twist which had C and I reliving the film in our minds to explain what we had seen.

✮✮✮

Deadpool 2

The wisecracking Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is back for another wink and nudge comic hero movie spoof adventure. This involves a seemingly endless chase and attack sequence with an horrendous body count.

The dialogue is made up of countless one liners. The intent seems to be that miss one or fail to find it amusing then the next one might be more to your liking.

Perhaps the best aspect of 'Deadpool 2' is its soundtrack made up of past and recent hits. The original film was novel but with this sequel the novelty is quickly wearing thin.

✮✮

Teenagers

Teenagers are a strange beast. A group of six teenage girls having paid, I presume, to attend a cinema spent the entire movie taking selfies of themselves.

Not only did they take selfies during the movie but they used flash photography to do so.

I suppose they grow out of it.

Life of the Party

After dropping off her daughter for her final semester of University, Deanna (Melissa McCarthy) is shocked when her husband tells her he is seeking a divorce. Single again, Deanna decides to resume her pre-family interrupted University studies and finds herself socialising with her own daughter's classmates.

What could have been an amusing generation clash tale is mostly unfunny, at times irritating and occasionally unpleasant. The few moments of genuine humour become lost opportunities as 'Life of the Party' races on to the next unfunny situation.

Misses the mark.

✮✮