outsider cinema

Review Type: New

  • Caught Stealing

    Caught Stealing

    Caught Stealing is the latest film from Darren Aronofsky. It concerns Hank (Austin Butler) who gets himself inadvertently involved in a multi-million dollar drug feud. It has been a few years since the release of The Whale from Aronofsky, and this couldn’t be further in style and many could see going back to his roots of psychological inner turmoil. The film sets itself in 1998 which is also the year of his first feature length film Pi. As I will go on to highlight, you get the feeling that if he actually made the film in 1998 it would’ve been a lot better than making it today.

    It first Darren Aronofsky film I have struggled with on first viewing so the first thing I ask myself is to what the usual successful formula for his movies is. They deal with obsession and isolated characters where through tapping into their psyche, we can gain a deeper understanding of our own existence. You see this here in Caught Stealing: it concerns a troubled character, who has his own addiction issue, it also seems to be an analogy for his own internal issues and more importantly it all descends into chaos. Its a tricky formula to get right which Aronofsky has managed in the past, whereas here it feels like he’s taken on too much. There is little cohesion between all these important elements and ends up feeling like a generic crime film.

    I haven’t read the original book but I’m sure it is a good read, like all Aronofsky films he always picks good source material. The issue here is how its being presented on the big screen. Austin Butler has more than proved himself by this point, its only been a week or so since I seen him in Eddington (Aster, 2025) which he excelled at portraying a conspiracy theorist. Here it feels like hes been cast in the wrong movie. Either the writing has let him down or its not the right role for him, but there is no scale to his inner turmoil which feels more like he wants this to happen rather than something he is trying to escape from. The only half-decent portrayal came from Matt Smith as Russ the token cockney for the film. You do feel that he really liked playing the role, even if it was just another stereotypical Londoner in New York who also calls the band IDLES, ‘The Idles’ which really wound me up.

    I enjoyed the soundtrack to the film but at the same time, I only enjoyed it because I was a fan of the music. It served its purpose by reminding us that it was set in 1998 and not the modern day but didn’t create any feeling towards what was being shown on screen. In fact it brought us closer to the modern day when you feel Aronofsky was trying to make it seem was set in a long forgotten past. It at times made out that the plot was concerned with the results of gentrification yet kept abandoning this under conceived idea. Its meant to show this pivotal point in New York history with these different characters from all walks of life playing off each other, yet it felt more like a superhero spin off where all these factions have been forced to share a storyline with one another.

    If you look at the poster for the film or the trailer full of spoilers for the whole plot of the movie, you could tell it was going to be a standard genre crime film with no surprises. The biggest surprise is when you know who directs it. The film still deserves three stars but the reason why this has been so negative is because you’d expect so much better from him. A director well known for a unique style of cinematography where close ups or the angle of shots illustrates the deeper meaning of a movie. Yet here there is none of that. Requiem For A Dream was the first film I seen of his and it felt so fresh, like nothing I’ve seen before. Caught Stealing, you could just watch the trailer than you’ve seen the whole film.

  • The Roses

    The Roses

    Every director reaches the stage where their middle-aged life becomes the narrative of the movies they make. Jay Roach has seemed to reach this midlife crisis stage that reflects the story he’s decided to direct, here Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman star as a couple attempting to stay in love when money and age don’t want the same thing from them.

    The film gets better the further it gets into it. When the main stars are free to play off each other, you feel the fractions between them like their your own parents. If anything a stage play with both of them would’ve been a better drawn out idea, the world around them seems to be what ruins it. In their young life they decide to move to the United States, and this is where it starts to feel like a US remake of an English sitcom which also includes actors from both sides of the pond. They are included for the easy one-liners and even create the tedious plot points of the story, but theres no chemistry with them and the main actors who you feel have just met on the first day of shooting. These people have no impact on the inter-dynamic relationship between the two main characters so it leads you to think they should’ve either created a plot where they were more key or just get rid of them altogether.

    It takes a while for the film to find the potential in Cumberbatch and Coleman as well. Early on the comedy comes from the least comedic set ups possible, which they then reflect on in the next scene. To give an example, Coleman names her restaurant ‘We’ve Got Crabs’. A joke so bad that it didn’t need explaining by Cumberbatch in the next scene, but for some reason this is what happens. When the film reaches the stage of being charming, maybe not quite funny but charming, is later when its just them two in a scene on their own. You feel like they’ve known each other for a lifetime, and coming from a theatre background for both of them definitely helped with this.

    You need to strip back everything to get to anything of worth here. Stature is another element that punches you in the face while the two of them whisper in your ear a joke. The characters want you to care for them as they want to be seen and loved. At the same time they are unrelatable to the every day person both in how rich they are and also the out of touch way they live their lifestyles. Of course films don’t have to be relatable to me or any person walking down the street, it just feels like a film too connected to the directors/writers background to really connect with the every day persons hardship in the face of turmoil. Jay Roach’s directing style when he was younger is more slapstick and irreverent. But now that he’s big time and middle aged, its harder to go to more realistic style of comedy that alienates a lot of its possible audience.

  • Eddington

    Eddington

    The film is set in 2020, one of the most hostile and uncertain periods of time in living memory, and the film deals with all of this in what seems to be the pressure cooker of Eddington, New Mexico where it is set. The backdrop is that of the coronavirus crisis where wearing masks and protecting others create the main early grudge between Sheriff Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and Mayor Garcia (Pedro Pascal). This then becomes overshadowed when race movement and conspiracy theories start to get more of a grasp on the storyline that creates deeper ructions within their community. This in itself is a perfect potion to make a satire from, a community in turmoil where the clashing of political and ideological beliefs leaves all paranoid of each other. This is one of the main strengths of the film that it is a heightened satire which never takes sides. It doesn’t prod the audience what side to be on through narrative but allows the characters to dig their own graves and lose track with reality.

    The film follows the Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976) style of anti-hero. Sheriff Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) is morally inept from the start, but through the hardship that he faces you end up backing their corner by the end. The pathos we feel for him leads this charge where in what becomes the final battles, it is no longer about politics, and more about this individual on a humane level. The sheriff is also one of a few characters where you actually visualise their emotions in the film. Cinema is all about spectacle so when a character offers this in return, you of course gain more of a connection to the character. This is in comparison to Mayor Garcia (Pedro Pascal) whose role requires him to underplay any emotions, he is still a hostile individual but knows exactly how to push the Sheriffs buttons.

    The film manages to be this satire, which delivered well on the laughter. More than this it becomes a successful thriller film that subverts the audiences preconceptions from the start. Ari Aster started his directorial career making horror films, but here he creates the greatest moments of suspense that he has done throughout his career. This either comes from subverting the moments of battle to when you start to feel less tense, or through cinematography where in one of the final scenes the camera doesn’t follow the sheriff directly but pans around to empty scenery that adds to the tension.

    Making it as satirical and political as it is, it can be seen as Ari Aster’s closest film to reality to date. But the apocolypictic way in which the story decends into chaos bring the story back into the shared space along with all the other great pieces of work from his paranoid mind. It manages to descend into chaos, and create all these detestable characters, but throughout you still feel a great connection with the narrative and the redemption of feeling towards the Sheriff is something that can only be achieved in the best of anti-hero films.

  • Materialists

    Materialists

    Coming off the critical success of Past Lives (2023), director Celine Song creates another sophisticated romantic comedy. The notoriety has certainly hit the budget where New York is now the destination along with a-list names. Dakota Johnson (Lucy) works for a dating agency that matches singles in the market for love and marriage, but soon gets entangled in her own situation that concerns the unionship between her and the two leading actors (John and Harry).

    I use the word ‘market’ in relationship to her working for the dating agency because it very much feels like that. Its like if Wall Street (Stone, 1987) was set today: individuals competing against each other and creating wealth out of assets, instead this time the wealthy prioritise finding their perfect match. Wall Street dealt with the rise of individualistic gains, Materialists highlights how this world now has loneliness as one of its main assets. She is the Gorden Gekko at the centre of all of this. Early on she is portrayed as the all knowing character needed in competitive world of brokering where any emotion can get in the way of her work. The film also creates a distance between audience and main characters, you see what they want you to see rather than delving into a full character back story.

    The film establishes this well early on, you understand and feel part of the story within the first few scenes. One of the main contributing factors, and just like Past Lives, comes from the editing and use of music within the film. It would be before the half hour mark of the film where already 10 songs have been played. The way they create a flow between scenes makes this fully justified, slowly revealing more of Lucy’s life outside of just work. Then your introduced to Pascal’s character in the film. People overuse the term ‘chewing the scenery’ too much but his introduction made this a very justified term. He enters the wedding party of his brother and almost acts as himself where everyone around seems to fall at his feet and rush to introduce themselves to him. It seems to come second in nature, both in character and real life, that wherever he goes this allure follows him.

    This creates the main plot for the film, and in no way new concept for a romcom. It is Lucy who has to choose from the affection of Pascal, or as your later introduced Chris Evan’s character John. It is the usual rich against poor where you know that money may allude her at first but by the end it will be about something deeper. This is also where the film starts to allude me, where early on it managed to be so engrossing. It uses this overused romcom trope, but also Evan’s character is in no way believable as a scrimping lower-class actor. He’s a pretty versatile actor but put him into a situation where he has to act like an every person then he just can’t manage it. It needed humanity and understanding – in the same way you feel Celine Song really knew and researched the matchmaker industry – but all that was given was a character that you feel has walked in from another romantic comedy. Its not all his fault, you do feel like the time all went into the establishing and character development part of the film, but when it came to an ending the plot wasn’t really there to be seen.

    The film has great elegance to it, regardless of this. Celine Song’s films flow so harmoniously where you stay engrossed in their world. It is great she’s managed to keep the same group of people around her to make the movie as without them, it couldn’t recreate this a second time around. The shift from a smaller production to a bigger one like this is always going to bring changes. Including mainstream characters like Johnson and Pescal bring the allure of a mainstream film but also a dynamic needed that powers most of the successful parts of the film. Its not Chris Evans fault at all, but when his role becomes more prominent, the ending does fall flat on its face.

  • Together

    Together

    The story follows Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Alison Brie) who decide to move to the country together. Alarm bells start to ring in any film when a couple decides to move to the countryside, even if you haven’t seen the trailers. There are of course the early cues to the narrative that is coming, when she says “everyone finds it cute were matching” you can guess it’ll be a horror that dissects the allegorical features in the nature of relationships.

    Along with the narrative, the script does also feel very route one. Describing having a Spice Girls album as having “spice on vinyl” really grinded the most with me. It creates a gap between us and them that has to be avoided to have the emotional connection needed in any horror film that when things start going wrong your on their side. Instead your not, and at that you really don’t care what happens to them. It reminded me a lot of the film Men (Garland, 2022) where the body horror increased in intensity throughout the film. However, Men succeeded better because it created intrigue through and balanced the line between overplaying the situation their in and keeping it close to reality.

    Of course what you want for a thriller is something that entertains you for the 90 minutes (hopefully no longer) that it was on screen. This film did manage to do that, but I’m sure I wont remember it for long. With it being more of a body horror, when the jump scares came they worked well as you weren’t really expecting them. The visuals are done very well, but this is to be expected from a director coming from a visual effect artist background and making their feature length film debut. It created a good spectacle for those watching, but at the same time struggled with the main foundations of narrative.

  • Weapons

    Weapons

    The trailers, and somewhat overdone narration at the start of the film highlighting the situation the community is in, may takeaway from the unknowingness at the start of the film. But when ‘Beware of Darkness’ by George Harrison plays while children run with their hands out, it creates an aura and intrigue needed for a start of a horror film to succeed.

    It is clear to see early on the depth of knowledge that the director has for other horror/thriller films and the influence they have on this film. The sets itself from the point of view of the teacher (Julia Garner) whose class have all disappeared in this strange occurrence. You follow her story in the same way a giallo film would follow the main actor. They are the one who are being accused by the community of the wrongdoings. Without the help of others around them or even the police force have to try and work out the goings on by themselves. One shot even positions her next to a J&B bottle, the staple of any giallo film. It creates a connection between audience and main character where we join them on this journey, accused or not we know they aren’t the ones to blame.

    You start to be introduced to other characters in the film; her ex-boyfriend who is now a police officer, her work colleague and then the father of one of the lost children (Josh Brolin). This is when the story really starts to become different to expected. We move from it just being her point of view, to being from multiple different perspectives. This sharp change in direction becomes the films most valuable asset but also at the same time its biggest downfall. The shifting between characters to tell their individual story creates many different angles on events not seen if we just saw the teachers perspective, it also creates a more dynamic narrative where the stories intertwine and come together to make many thrilling moments.

    The question that comes from this however is does this style of storytelling both suit a horror film and also cinema as a whole. There are many films that play on the multiple perspectives in a great way for cinema, Babel (Iñárritu, 2006) is the first that comes to mind or even Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) which you have the feeling this film bases somewhat on. But when it is to the extent of over five different perspectives in the story, it does become a bit tiresome. A good multiple perspective movie works well when you don’t know when or how the stories will entangle in one another, here it is pretty obvious mainly due to the fact its a horror film with one underlying storyline. It also feels the story is more suited to a limited television programme in this sense where each episode follows a different character – I kept thinking about The White Lotus television show throughout which could’ve been due to the strange incidental music they played halfway through that sounded like it could’ve been from this show with its ‘quirky’ storyline and premise.

    As already stated, this both benefits the film and doesn’t. I do believe the film wouldn’t be the same without the perspective of other characters and the storylines it creates from it are really to the films benefit. The only reservation from me is that it achieves it in a disjointed way, more suited to the television rather than a film. But for originality and interesting story, the film definitely wins it for me.

  • Friendship

    Friendship

    Tim Robinson first leading role in a film, comes here in Friendship (DeYoung, 2024) which is a comedy about, as you might guess, friendship. This isn’t to say Robbins hasn’t created a name for himself in comedic circles, he already has a successful Netflix comedy show with I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson along with appearances on Saturday Night Live. What shocked me most looking into the film after watching it is that he has no directing or writing credits in the film. It matches so closely his unique style of comedic storytelling in his television series and quite frankly couldn’t be performed in such a perfect way by another actor.

    If it isn’t the case that Robinson created the content in the film, it is clear that they would only have him in mind when casting it. He has such a unique style of comedic presentation that could easily tip over into a spoof like nature or being too played too straight. Robinson managed to walk this tightrope and create something that creates great comedic moments out of ordinary situations but also create a contrived story that never feels ill conceived. His acting style at first feels like someone who has never seen someone speak or act before, its over-acted and overdone with emotion. But this is what me and many others find as the appeal to it, many of the best pieces of laughter from the film come from putting Robbins into these everyday situations where his over reaction makes a normal scene become ridiculous. This is where Robbins stands out from other comedians, his acting style is in the same line as Andy Kaufman or Alan Partridge, it brings the absurd into the ordinary in such a transgressive way. It leads to a situation where even when he mentions where he bought his coat from, it leads to a gaggle of laughter in the screening. The funniest moment for me was a situation in which he takes a drug made for him to have a wild trip but in the end just leads to him visiting a Subway until he is woken up. Its funny because it subverts the ordinary expectation of what will happen and also his overreaction to it.

    As already mentioned, the film performs a tightrope act and not making it too much of a pastiche or spoof is something that the film thankfully pulls off. The film concerns the friendship between Craig (Tim Robbins) and Austin (Pull Rudd), along with his family, where the film follows the highs and lows of these relationships to him. You still get behind the story and the interpersonal relationships in the film, even with the main character hamming it up at every available opportunity. This is where Paul Rudd’s character Austin comes into it, his performance allows Robbins to pull off these great moments of comedy by matching the emotional elements of his performance but never feeling like they are in a strange alternate universe then to the one in which we live in. They follow and lead his stupid ideas but never call him out for it as if he was acting like a child as this would dismantle the comedy of his performance.

    Friendship is of course at the heart of the film. Throughout it is Craig hunting for the perfect best friend who he hopes Austin can supply him with. He has no care in the world how this might impact his family as having a best friend is something that he hopes for most. His inadequacy grows throughout the film and this impact upon family isn’t necessarily what matters, what you want more than most is for him to have a best friend in Austin. You want him to suffer as it brings so much joy and laughter, but you also want them both to be best friends at the same time and escape the world in which they live in to live this strange reality together.

  • Bring Her Back

    Bring Her Back

    Its been a few years since the Australian twins, Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, became the latest names in the horror genre to reach notoriety after the release of Talk To Me (2022). Bring Her Back is the latest release from the pair who seem to be becoming genre-specific directors with follow ups to Talk To Me also being announced recently.

    Bring Her Back had the same impact on me as their predecessor did in many different ways. The success of the film and also its downfalls seem to match each other in a way that there overall success of the films delivered in the same way. It is pretty usual for films to overstay their welcome, where something that feels amazing at first ends up becoming a total wreck. This film (and its predecessor) had the opposite effect where I found the opening third absolutely tedious, until something seemed to click. I’ll start with the negatives just like the arc of the movie. The writing struggles to deliver any connection between audience and main protagonists where your thrown into a trying situation of seeing them lose their Dad but haven’t built up any bond with them to actually care about it. What is more frustrating is that they included the interesting new angle of the step sister (Sora Wong) being partially sighted, but the film didn’t really seem to make much of this. Feeling cinema is important to any movie but should be of the upmost importance to a horror film that also includes a nearly blind character. You should be able to feel what she does and sense her surroundings in a comparative way, the film doesn’t achieve this at all and almost forgets about her being blind other than to fill in plot holes that would ruin the story without her being blind. The supernatural element with the danger of crossing this mystical boundary line is another worn out trope that horror films seem to be relying heavily upon currently. In the trailers before watching this film was another horror movie that used the whole ‘dont step over this line otherwise bad things will happen’ idea which I was bored of even before the film started.

    As already said, these gripes came early on in the film. It didn’t necessarily recover from any of these issues but the delivery in different aspects is something that me reevaluate my opinion on it. For a horror film, it actually managed to deliver on the horror. It may not have made you feel anything from the step sisters perspective, but it definitely made you feel each stab upon the skin or removal of teeth. The infliction style of these wounds is always a more powerful way to get an audience to hide behind their hands at sheer horror of the spectacle. When someone else inflicts injury upon someone it makes you question humanity, when it is inflicted upon yourself then you question your own beliefs. There were also a good few numbers of successful jump scares, they used the moment to shock rather than getting the audience ready beforehand. Sally Hawkins stars in the film in what is another fairly water drenching performance to add to her back catalogue of getting a soaking within a film. She does what she always does best, delivering a solid and reliable performance. You see her evil ways coming from a mile off but when she gets to the deranged stage of the story, she is able to play it in a very convincing way.

    Just like Talk To Me, the film delivers a solid horror film in a oversaturated market. It creates something that feels fresh to the genre and moves away from the negative tropes like useless jumpscares and overplaying the supernatural elements. It may not create the greatest bond between audience and characters along with a fairly poor script, but the only genre that can still delivery a great piece of entertainment without these elements is horror and as a pure spectacle it delivered upon that. The Philippou twins have so far managed to create interesting horror films that appeal to their short stories background (being YouTube stars) and able to pass on the biggest test of finding material from this to facilitate a full length movie.