I have had a couple of weeks off, but I am back at it and prepping for my third year of doing twenty-five Christmas films in the lead up to the big day. While I have been away, I have still been going to the cinema and so I thought today, instead of doing a single review on one film, I would do a shorter piece with summaries on the new films I have seen on my time off. And there is no time to like the present, so we might as well just crack on with it.
Last Night in Soho (2021) – Edgar Wright
This was my most anticipated film of the year, all because it was a new Edgar Wright film. I am a huge fan of the director and so I made sure to get myself to see this as soon as possible. And while it is not as good as his top tier output, I still very much enjoyed it. It does have some narrative and scripting issues which make the film feel like it is jumping the shark at points, and this does hinder the film. But the basic premise is solid, and the actors put everything into it and so it still really worked for me. The real thing that made me like the film as much as I did was the visual nature of it. It may be Edgar Wright’s best-looking film in terms of set design, costuming, lighting, the whole shebang. It feels massively inspired by Suspiria (1977) in terms of its visuals and that is no bad thing. I don’t feel it has the rewatch value of some of his other films, but it is another great addition to an extremely solid filmography.
Spencer (2021) – Pablo Larrain
This was such a pleasant surprise. I had no prior knowledge of the directors’ work and so there was no expectation going into this apart from what I had seen in the trailer, and I really enjoyed what I got. The film looks great, with the costuming and sets being specifically noteworthy. And the narrative, while not entirely accurate to real life, is engaging and sucks you in. This is really helped by the lead performance of Kristen Stewart who is superb in the lead role. At the start of the film, it was a little weird, but boy did she win me over by the end. I have heard for ages that the Twilight films did not truly show off her talents, and I think this is the first film where I truly saw this. But the best aspect of this film is the Johnny Greenwood score. It is superb. It adds so much depth to the film and flips brilliantly from a classic orchestral score to this jazz score that really amps up the feeling of anxiety throughout the film. It is one of the best scores I have heard in a long time and adds so much to an already great film.
Eternals (2021) – Chloe Zhao
I have never been the biggest Marvel fan, but I also don’t think there are many bad films in the entire franchise which for a series of films so long is very impressive. That being said, this one was not good. Now, I don’t think it is nearly as bad as some people seem to think it is. It has some nice visuals and I think all the actors are doing a pretty good job throughout even if none of them steals the show. But that is where the positives end. The film is a mess. It is all over the place narratively, and the scale of the film makes everything seem rushed forced in. This leads to the film being mostly uninteresting. With so much going on and with so many characters we need to be introduced to and learn to care about, what eventually happens is you turn your brain off as there is just too much, and you end up not caring at all. I never felt restless, but the film basically just washed over me, and I cared so little about everything going on. I feel like Avengers: Endgame (2019) felt like a natural end to this franchise and films like this do not make me feel any different.
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