Film Review Club

King Richard, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green follows Richard Williams as he raises his children Serena and Venus on a strict 78 page plan. The plans has one purpose, to make them the best tennis players the world has ever seen. Battling poverty, racism and adversity we see what it took for Serena and Venus to cement their legacy in the sport. CAST & THE ACTING  Will Smith leads the cast as Richard Williams and he delivers one of his best performances to date. He transforms into his character, taking on his characteristics and speech as though he really was Richard Williams himself. He was able to make the audience feel every kind of emotion at some point in the film, he even switched between the role of the good guy and the bad guy which made the character more relatable and created a realistic depiction of what he was really like. Demi Singleton and Saniyya Sidney played Serena and Venus respectively and they also did really well. The chemistry between the entire cast was one o

Laid in America is a comedy directed by Sam Milman and Peter Vass which follows two exchange students who want to spend their last night in America losing their Virginity.  CAST & THE ACTING  Youtubers KSI and Casper Lee lead the cast as the two exchange students from England and South Africa. Surprisingly they weren’t terrible which is certainly what I expected going into the film. They were actually quite funny and got into their characters pretty well. KSI’s character seemed like an exaggeration of himself, I don’t know too much about Casper Lee but he portrayed the nervous and timid Jack nicely. These two aren’t actors so you can clearly see moments where the acting is pretty poor but that being said they were good at delivering on comedic timings and dialogue. The only other actor I recognised was Madison Iseman, who you may know from the recent Jumanji films. There wasn’t any memorable performances that’s for sure and I expected that, they just needed to make you laugh and as

Tick…Tick…Boom is a Netflix film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and it’s based on the autobiographical Musical by playwright Jonathan Larson. Following him during his late 20’s as an aspiring composer who is questioning his career choice and juggles work, dreams and love. CAST & THE ACTING  Andrew Garfield is Jonathan Larson and he absolutely kills it, it’s hard to find the words to do his performance justice. Everything from his physical movement to his vocals just creates the perfect blend of drama and musical. What I love about Garfield is his ability to physically portray such strong emotions, just his facial expressions can make you understand the raw emotion that his character is feeling. The vocals from the rest of the cast are also fantastic as you would expect from a musical. However I want to mention Robin De Jesus and Alexandra Shipp who both delivered really strong performances as Michael and Susan respectively. De Jesus especially, for a film focusing on one key charac

Killing Eve is a BBC drama which follows an MI6 agent called Eve who is tasked to find an active assassin (Villanelle) working across Europe. Meanwhile Villanelle is ordered to kill Eve but instead the pair find themselves strangely drawn to one and other.  CAST & THE ACTING  Jodie Comer leads the cast as Villanelle and wow, I was so impressed by her performance! Not only does she play a complicated, emotional psychopath convincingly she also pulls off multiple different accents and every one is perfect, from Russian and English to American and French! It’s no surprise this series is what elevated her to starring in Hollywood films. Eve Polastri is played by Sandra Oh and she also does well, playing the sort of reverse to Villanelle. A stand up good person who finds her darkness creeping out as the seasons pass, she portrayed that transition really well. However one of my favourite characters is Carolyn Martens who is played by Fiona Shaw. She really comes into her element the deep

Ghostbusters Afterlife is the latest instalment in the franchise and is a sequel to the original 1980 films but set in the current day (2021). The film is directed by Jason Reitman and follows Callie as she moves her family to a town called Summersville to inherit her late fathers house. They soon realise they have a connection to the original ghostbusters as strange things begin to happen. CAST & THE ACTING  I would say the cast is actually led by McKenna Grace who absolutely steals the show as Phoebe. She plays a genius kid who is a bit of an outsider but delivers some fantastic moments of comedy. Her chemistry with costar Logan Kim who plays her friend podcast is one of the best relationships in the film, both are hilarious! Paul Rudd plays Mr Grooberson and he is always a safe bet in terms of delivering strong performances, which has made him one of the most loved actors in Hollywood. It is no different in this film. Finn Wolfhard plays Phoebe’s brother Trevor, he also does wel

Red Notice is the latest Netflix original, the largest budget they have designated to a project so far. The film follows John Hartley an Interpol agent who is trying to find and arrest the best art thief in the world. CAST & THE ACTING  The cast is fantastic, there’s no denying that. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson plays John Hartley and combined with Ryan Reynolds humour and Gal Gadots cool suave, you would expect Red Notice to excel in this category. However this was not the case, don’t get me wrong there is plenty of humour and Reynolds and The Rock do gel well in that regard but the rest of the performances felt hollow. What I did enjoy was for once they didn’t portray the rock as an invincible Hercules who could literally do anything, he was actually bested on a few occasions in the film, which was refreshing. In terms of the rest of the cast they were very unnecessary and you could tell the focus was firmly on the three big stars because no one else really got a look in. The emphas

Mortal Kombat is a Martial Art fantasy film based on the popular game of the same name. Hunted by a warrior named Sub Zero, Cole Young finds sanctuary at the Temple of Lord Raiden. It’s there Cole prepares to stand with Earths greatest champions. CAST & THE ACTING  Lewis Tan plays Cole Young and his performance is probably one of the better ones out of the film. However I still feel like there wasn’t much substance to it and like the other performances, it all seemed a little cliche. Some of the other cast members include Jessica McNamee, Sisi Stringer, Joe Taslim and Josh Lawson, but as I mentioned above I wasn’t to fond of any of them. Lawson as Kano was entertaining at times and I feel like he suited the role but I would probably say the best overall performance would have to go to Hiroyuki Sanada as scorpion. It felt like he portrayed the emotion of his character a lot better then his colleagues, although that could be down to the tragic origins of his character. He is also the

Eternals is the latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic universe and is directed by Academy Award winner Chloe Zhao. It follows a group of immortals created by celestial beings to protect humans from deviants. Blessed with a range of superhuman abilities they have protected and influenced the human race for thousands of years. CAST & THE ACTING  Wow, what an unbelievable cast Salma Hayek plays the Eternals leader Ajak, whilst Richard Madden plays the most powerful eternal Ikaris, Gemma Chan is Serci, Angelina Jolie is Thena, Kumail Nanjiani is Kingo, Lauren Ridloff is Makkari, Barry Keoghan is Druig, Don Lee is Gilgamesh, Brian Tyree Henry is Phastos and finally Lia McHugh is the final eternal Sprite. What I enjoyed the most about this stellar cast was that it was the perfect blend of talent, with comedic actors and actors known for more dramatic roles. This combination meant that we got the best of both worlds, performances that could get us emotional and make us laugh. Meanwhil

Daredevil is a Marvel series produced by Netflix and follows the blind lawyer Matt Murdock as he masks up to fight crime on the streets of New York, specifically Hells Kitchen. Over the course of the 3 seasons we see him take on some of the characters most famous adversaries from Kingpin to the Punisher.  CAST & THE ACTING  Whenever I think of the Daredevil Netflix show I always think about how perfect the casting is. Charlie Cox soon became a fan favourite, playing the masked vigilante Daredevil and it is well deserved because he portrays the character brilliantly. He has mentioned in interviews how difficult it was playing a blind character, not being able to look people in the eye whilst performing and despite his difficulty, he pulls it off very well. Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson play Karen Page and Foggy Nelson respectively and they form a really good trio, full of energy and charisma. Especially Henson who injects the comedy into the series. However what I think Netflix

Last Night in Soho is a psychological horror directed by Edgar Wright and follows an aspiring fashion designer as she moves to London to follow her dreams. Her dreams of the 1960’s introduces her to a wannabe singer called Sandy but she soon realises that those visions are influencing her reality as they get darker and darker.  CAST & THE ACTING  Thomasin McKenzie plays Eloise the main protagonist in the film. Overall I think she gives a pretty solid performance and does well to portray the decline of her character. One criticism I would have is perhaps her delivery of dialogue, it sometimes come across as very childlike, almost like a toddler speaking at times and that was quite annoying. I could actually say the same for one of her co-stars too, Michael Ajao who played John. He also had similar delivery, which would suggest that perhaps it was intentional but I really didn’t like that, they are uni students and shouldn’t be speaking like toddlers! For me the best bits of acting c

Dune is a 2021 American sci-fi film directed by Dennis Villeneuve and based on the 1965 novel of the same name written by Frank Herbert. The film follows Paul Atreides a gifted young man and Duke to the Arteides dynasty. As his family are given control of the dangerous planet Arrakis his visions of the planet and it’s inhabitants get stronger and stronger and upon his arrival to Arrakis he soon finds himself and his people fighting for their lives. CAST & THE ACTING  It’s fair to say that Dune is stacked with talent, Timothée Chalamet leads the cast as Paul Atreides and he continues to build his reputation as a brilliant young actor. His character is a complex one and he does well to personify those complexities and create a really likeable protagonist that audiences can get invested in. His combat choreography was also impressive, which came as no surprise after watching his performance in The King. Oscar Isaac and Rebecca Ferguson played Paul’s parents Leto Atreides and Lady Jess

Brassic is a Sky original comedy series directed by Jon Wright, Daniel O’Hara and Saul Metzstein. Set in the north of England, Vinnie and his band of misfit friends are broke and have a hand in all sorts of petty crime. Friendships begin to be put to the test at the thought of a fresh start elsewhere looks promising to Vinnies best friend Dylan and his girlfriend Erin.  CAST & THE ACTING  Joseph Gilgun leads the cast as Vinnie and I have to say he is one of my favourite British comedic actors. He always delivers when it comes to comedy and it’s why projects like Brassic, Misfits, Preacher and This is England we’re so successful. What I also enjoy about his performance in Brassic is that he can touch upon the more serious nature of his character as well as the comedy and being able to do both, to a high standard, makes him so likeable to the audience.. The rest of the cast is made up of Michelle Keegan as Erin, Aaron Heffernan as Ash, Ryan Sampson as Tommo, Damien Molony as Dylan an