What did you see?: July 2023

This evening I went to see Asteroid City. At this point Wes Anderson is almost beyond parody (although that's not stopping people trying) and the trailer looked like one of those AI efforts. However, he does push things further with a meta plot, I am just unsure if it works. There may be some fiendishly clever interwoven narrative that I am missing or it could all just be pretentious bobbins. I am leaning towards the latter pending the arrival of further information. I should say that there is a genuinely funny moment that got the cinema laughing and, more broadly, it is great to see a director just going out and doing his own thing.

Watched Cast Away last night. Absolutely smashing.

Went to Screen Unseen, so I didn't know what it'd be, although everyone seemed pretty confident it was going to be Joy Ride, which it was. So, although I'd seen the trailer, I hadn't seen reviews or any comments online but I found it an effective comedy. It lands early with a great gag and keeps that pace up most of the way through, although I wasn't too sure they managed to gear change in tone towards the end. That said, I was entertained, as were most of the people in the cinema, if the laughs were any guide.

Watched MI7 - the storytelling through the action was spot on (and Cruise commits his usual 1,000% but Hayley Atwell matches him step for step - if they are looking for the next big action hero, she's got what it takes) but the storytelling through the storytelling was pretty horrible (so much clunky exposition) and there's some pretty questionable "fridging". Also as it stands, the plot and the McGuffin largely make zero sense but, if they are being clever, it may not be intended to and we'll get some cunning switcheroos in part 2 (and yes for as very, very long as this is, it's only the first part), which now I've thought a bit about them, I'll be disappointed if this doesn't happen. Dammit I've already ruined part 2 for myself.

Went to see Barbie last night. It was great - taking an idea that could be unwatchable by adults and really running with it. Top notch story, brilliant casting (got a few "no ways" out of me) and it feels like everyone had a blast making it. It's both brave of Mattel to let them do what they like but, ultimately, a very subversive film is going to help them shift a lot of Barbie toys and merchandise which could leave a bad taste in my mouth. However, this was going to happen (they are exploiting the cross-media potential of a lot of their toy lines) and it had no right to be this good (looking at you Transformers and GI Joe). I imagine there'll be a large slate of Oscar nominations for this.