Origin: Movie Review

Cast: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Nick Offerman

Director: Ava DuVernay

More like a TED talk than an actual narratively connected film, Ava DuVernay's occasionally didactic take on author Isabel Wilkerson's seminal book "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" does make a strong case for her theory about racism being part of the caste system.

But DuVernay's occasionally aloof and at times dense film does require a lot of its viewers as it traverses both Wilkerson's life and her theory.

Ellis-Taylor delivers an approachable and watchable performance as Wilkerson as she endures tragedy in her own life, but despite this, the film is less interested in the personal and more concerned with the theory espoused - and no matter how richly it looks on screen, the film somehow manages to maintain an emotional aloofness despite what could be emotive edges.

Perhaps more successful are the moments between Ellis-Taylor and Bernthal, though for obvious reasons those are shortened in the overall film's construction. But it's here they bristle with humanity and warmth.

The rest of the film though lacks subtlety and becomes more of a test of the theories Wilkerson has adopted and has researched. It helps little that a rousing score is deployed at opportune moments to boost its poignancy and while that occasionally is no bad thing, it does leave a feeling the audience can't be relied on to make their own judgement calls.

Ulitmately Origin will test some viewers' resolve; in parts, it offers glimpses of what could be a movie more aimed at presenting a stronger and more urgent message to support its theories. But in others, its lack of subtlety proves to be almost fatal.

Stylistically, Origin represents something different and while it's not entirely successful throughout, a rousing over-the-credits film by New Zealander Stan Walker delivers as much as power as should be mustered throughout.

What's on Shudder in May

Haunted by a malevolent spirit since childhood, a desperate mother allows herself to become possessed in order to save the life of her terminally ill daughter. 

Starring Terrence Howard (Iron Man) and Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire). Streaming exclusively on Shudder and AMC+ from Friday 3 May.

Skeletons in the Closet 

Streaming Exclusively on Shudder and AMC+ 

Film Premieres Friday 3 May 

Haunted by a malevolent spirit since childhood, a desperate mother allows herself to become possessed in order to save the life of her terminally ill daughter.  

Starring Terrence Howard (Iron Man) and Cuba  Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire). 

Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever 

Streaming Exclusively on Shudder and AMC+ 

Film Premieres Friday 17 May  

22-year-old medical student Emma (Fanny Leander Bornedal) has just taken a job as the night watch in the same forensic department where her parents were once almost killed by the famed psychopathic police inspector Wörmer. The events led to her mother’s suicide, and her father Martin (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has turned to tranquilizers to suppress the memories. Determined to investigate what exactly happened to them, Emma  tracks down and confronts Wörmer, only to unintentionally reawaken his bloodthirst and ignite a violent  revenge on everyone who sealed his destiny years ago. 

*Nightwatch (1994) also streaming exclusively beginning 17 May 

Stopmotion 

Streaming Exclusively on Shudder and AMC+ 

Film Premieres Friday 31 May 

Ella Blake is a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she embarks upon the creation of a macabre new puppet film, which soon becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella's mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed  power of her imagination threatens to destroy her. Starring Aisling Franciosi, Tom York and Jaz  Hutchins.

NEW ADDITIONS TO SHUDDER’S FILM LIBRARY 

May 1 

The Toxic Avenger 

Tromaville has a monstrous new hero. The Toxic Avenger is born when meek mop boy Melvin falls  into a vat of toxic waste. Now evildoers will have a lot to lose.  

The Toxic Avenger Part II 

The Toxic Avenger is tricked into traveling to Tokyo to search for his estranged father, leaving  Tromaville open to complete domination by an evil corporation.  

The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie 

Toxie finds he has nothing to do as a superhero, as he has ridden his city of evil. He decides to go to  work for a major corporation, which he discovers may be the evilest of all his adversaries.  

TA4 – Citizen Toxic: The Toxi Avenger IV 

The Toxic Avenger must defend his friends from his own evil alternate universe doppelgänger, The  Noxious Offender.  

Subject 

On his way to prison, a man gets intercepted by a secretive government agency who task him to  monitor a secret experiment in exchange for commuting his sentence.  

Sound of Silence 

Emma must uncover the dark secret behind a cursed radio to survive and protect her family. 

May 6 

Mother, May I? 

When Anya starts behaving like her fiancée’s recently deceased mother, Emmet must confront his  deepest traumas to free his fiancée from this bewildering possession.  

Beaten to Death 

A desperate choice leads Jack down a path that leaves him beaten and bruised as he struggles  against man, nature, and his own insanity.  

Mad Heidi 

Swiss mountain girl Heidi is abducted by brutal government troops and must defend herself and fight  a war against a cheese-fueled machinery of hate.  

May 8 

Mother’s Day (1980) 

Three young women are tormented by an insane matriarch and her depraved sons.  *The Last Drive-In: Mother’s Day episode also available.

May 13 

Landlocked 

Summoned to his soon-to-be demolished childhood home, Mason discovers a video camera that can  see into the past, driving him to record as many memories as possible before the doomed house is  destroyed. 

Holy Shit! 

Architect Frank wakes up from unconsciousness, squashed in a porta-potty. But it gets worse: In  order to not be blown up during the imminent demolition, Frank must make his way out of his blue  grave in one hour. A race against time.  

May 15 

Combat Shock 

A dangerously disturbed Vietnam veteran struggles with life 15 years after his return home, and slowly falls into insanity from his gritty urban lifestyle. 

May 20 

Smoking Causes Coughing 

A group of vigilantes called the “tobacco-forces” is falling apart. To rebuild the team spirit, their leader  suggests that they meet for a week-long retreat, before returning to save the world. 

May 27 

Graduation Day (1981) 

A masked killer begins murdering students on the school track team after a track runner dies upon  completion of a 30-second 200-meter race.  

You Were Never Really Here 

A traumatized veteran unafraid of violence tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out  of control, Joe’s nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered leading to what could be his  death trip or his awakening.  

Abigail: Movie Review

Cast: Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Alisha Weir, Kevin Durand, Kathryn Newton, Angus Cloud, Giancarlo Esposito, William Catlett

Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin

Meshing comedy and horror is not an easy proposition.

Push it too far and the horror stakes feel slight; push it too far the other way, and the comedy seems trite.

So for the large part of Abigail, a film about a group of would-be criminals kidnapping a 12 year-old ballet dancer and holding her to ransom, the premise proves to be the biggest hook - and also the high-wire act the Radio Silence Production team seems set on balancing on.

But a final act that descends too far into silliness and relies too much on the comedy robs the film of some of the more delicious tension that's been drawn out by a minimal script and some genuine scares.

The group - which comprises such loosely drawn stereotypes as the spaced out druggie (Euphoria's Cloud in his last ever role), the dumb muscle for hire (Durand, most of the comic relief), the anti-heroine (Barrera, eminently watchable) and the tough-talking guy (Stevens, easily one of the best things of the film) - make for solid enough companions, but the film's script spends too long drawing out thin details from exposition and talky-filled dumps of screentime to make you really care about any of them or their mysterious pasts. (And a potential love interest is drawn out early on, only to become a narrative thread thrown away, withered and untended to.)

Abigail is far more successful when it simply concentrates on the basics of the story - a group of dimwits being outclassed and outmanoeuvred by an initially unknown enemy.

Weir hisses, dances and menaces as much as she can - but an over-reliance on visual tics a la M3GAN and Swan Lake perversely shows the film's weaknesses as well as its singular strength - it has flashes of brilliance, but much of it seems to be snatched from other films as it can't quite build on its central idea.

Ultimately, Abigail is a movie where sometimes the differing tones violently clash and crash against each other as the B-movie constraints play out - but if you're willing to forego the plot's fallibilities, the thin character edges and a truly unnecessary finale where it's not just the scenery that's chewed on, Abigail may just be the fun time you're looking for at the movies.

Challengers: Movie Review

Cast: Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, Mike Faist
Director: Luca Guadagnino

There are plenty of bodies on show in Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino's latest film.

From sweat dripping from foreheads to glistening skin and writing bodies and close ups, it's a film that revels in its horniness from beginning to end, but one which starts to falter and stutter in its final strait.

While the basis of Challengers seemingly follows a traditional sports underdog and rivalry story, Guadagnino and writer Justin Kuritzkes are less interested in following a formula and more interested in perverting the threesome of Patrick (O'Connor), Art (Faist) and Tashi (Zendaya) into something that more resembles the psychology of obsession.

And that obsession once again translates into Guadagnino fixating on bodies, faces and food as he's done in previous films.

Set against the backdrop of a seemingly loaded final match at a tennis challengers game, the movie zips back and forth between timelines, filling out the friendship and eventual rivalry between Patrick and Art when they encounter Tashi's destined for fame player. 

But in the first of many clichés deployed during Challengers, the film follows a predictable path of a woman coming between two friends despite some flourishes of deviation. There's no denying Challengers' stylish flair, and its commitment to looking the best a film ever has - even while deploying flashes of Hardcore Henry in its gameplay.

Yet at moments, the bombast and over use of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' hi-energy techno laid over speeches, proves to be too much for Challengers, and points more to a style over substance approach that's been thrown down.

The film is much more effective when it lets the story take the lead, and lets its actors prove their worth. A sequence where Zendaya's Tashi simply sits back and watches her powerplays unfold say more than overly-heavy edits and OST do; and both O'Connor and Faist bring much depth and lived-in dynamics to their relationship as their cliched characters follow their own paths. (One's a loose cannon,  the other's a straight gun - all very familiar fare, but with subtlety, it shines).

With Guadagnino's fetishisation of his subjects leading much of Challengers, there's plenty in this swirling circle of lust, tennis and relationships to grab onto initially.

It's just once those have been taken on, there's little else worthy of depth and consideration to cling onto - and while Zendaya, Faist and O'Connor give it their all, in comparison to previous heights, this latest from Guadagnino feels more empty and hollow than it should - despite its sexiness and zing.

Cricket Through the Ages: Nintendo Switch review

Developed by Free Lives, 24BIT Games
Published by Devolver Digital
Platform: Nintendo Switch

Sometimes dumb fun is just that - dumb fun.

And in Cricket Through The Ages' case, this clearly is the mantra for a game that doesn't stand up to long term scrutiny, nor does it really offer any extended life beyond a couple of drunken gaming sessions.

With just a couple of buttons to press in a sort of Rock'em, Sock'em Robots style arena, Cricket Through The Ages puts the game of cricket into a two player arena as a series of pixel-heavy characters face off against each other.

But in a stupendously silly start, the game sees you trying to fist fight a dinosaur, before the evolution of bowling sees you pick up rocks to hurl at each other in time. A series of mini confrontations that end with the best of 5 or the best of 10, before hurling out into space and other climates, the game isn't really interested in depth, no matter how well presented it is.

As it progresses, more levels unlock and the game opens up but never really evolves past its fighting each other mentality. 

Granted, with an over-the-top voiceover and a case of simply doing what it says on the tin, the game is okay, but outside of just a couple of solo sessions and a few with mates, its shelf life is perhaps facing as much extinction as the dinosaurs it begins with.

Hi-Fi Rush: PS5 Review 

Developed by Tango Gameworks
Published by Bethesda Softworks
Platform: PS5

Most rhythm games exist as a means to an end.

From Parappa the Rapper to the likes of Beat Saber, the pounding of buttons is more for fun and progression than for narrative necessity.

Not so with Tango Gameworks action game - here, the integration of the beat and the story is eternally intertwined and is all the better for it. Centring on hero Chai, a 25 year old who wants to be a rockstar and who volunteers to get a cybernetic arm. But after an accident changes his future forever, Chai is soon the beating heart of an adventure about breaking out and following your dreams.

HiFi Rush, with its cartoony graphics and humour, feels like an updated version of Scott Pilgrim vs The World, given how integrated the beat and the bashing of baddies is meshed together.

Reminiscent of pop art and a mix of 2D and 3D scrollers, the game's commitment to choral chaos is mightily involving and highly entertaining.

Pulling together combos as you zip around the stylish world, Chai comes alive as a character, and with comic-book panel interlays for dialogue and scene-setting, the whole thing feels like a wonderfully alive comic book.

As the screen fills with hordes of robots to bash and combos to meet, not once does the system slow or struggle with the overload of colours, rhythms and chaos - it's mightily impressive stuff from Tango Gameworks.

But more importantly than that, this is just a game that's fun - one that rewards you from the moment you pick up the controller and let the music wash over you.

Pepper Grinder: Nintendo Switch Review

Developed by Ahr Ech
Published by Devolver Digital
Platform: Nintendo Switch

A drill, a pirate, and some platforming shenanigans, Pepper Grinder offers a very simple mix to players looking for a bit of handheld gaming that's brief on duration and high on concentration.

Simply using a drilling device to take on various challenges and threats, Pepper's quest to recapture her treasure sees her taking to the air, drilling through soft sand and taking on threats in a 2D adventure.

Whilst it initially seems simple in terms of its mechanics, adding in the need to simply sit back and play, the game's desire to hide away some of its more ingenious elements soon comes to the fore, and hidden areas and treasures soon make up a large part of what transpires.

It's not always the easiest to navigate Pepper around, but the game is all about timing and the need to grind when necessary to reach higher echelons. Building momentum takes effort, but the result of seeing Pepper soaring through the air to her target and her treasure makes it worthwhile.

Pepper Grinder is the kind of game that does feel short even with its runtime, and packs in as many fun elements as it can before it runs out. It may not suit everyone thanks to a requirement for nimble quick-thinking, but it is a breezy light blast of a game that shows not every idea needs to be bigger than you'd imagine.