PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK is not a neutral film by any stretch of the imagination, but it should not be. Farsi’s documentary is urgent, heart-wrenching, and deeply personal, profiling a single life among the tens of thousands lost too soon.
Mike Flanagan is no stranger to adapting Stephen King’s work, but like King himself, he’s tended to stick to horror. THE LIFE OF CHUCK represents a foray into King’s more literary work and, with its formally experimental structure and its genuinely life-affirming joyfulness, also represents a renewed confidence for Flanagan in his own writing.
MATERIALISTS finds Céline Song widening her cinematic lens beyond the tender intimacy of her debut PAST LIVES. This time, she offers a sharper, more scornful critique on modern romance and personal branding.
Anchored by layered, messy characters, WEAPONS delivers both fear and laughter but the resolution is less enterprising than the initial idea. The performances are undoubtedly entertaining, but audiences are likely to be split over whether the conclusion and final approach are worthy of them.
Ryan Coogler continues to grow as a filmmaker: the choice not to water down the more challenging ideas underneath the blockbuster sensibilities of SINNERS proves to be the lifeblood of the film.
The specific events in LATE SHIFT don’t especially matter, but the resilience Leonie Benesch conveys in the face of whatever they may be matters hugely.
JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH is the seventh entry in a series that resolutely and ironically refuses to die in the way the implied resurrection would require. Instead, Gareth Edwards takes the reins on a new entry that makes a clean break from the characters of the original JURASSIC PARK and JURASSIC WORLD, but not from the increasingly convoluted world that the series inhabits.
THE NAKED GUN is by no means the saviour of theatrical comedy. Still, with many films of its ilk relegated to streaming services, Akiva Schaffer’s legacy sequel is an unexpectedly welcome theatrical experience.
The inaugural edition of the North West Independent Film Festival in Preston used its second day to focus on the theme of ‘Shifting Grounds: Breaking Cycles, Seeking Truths’, showcasing films which hold a spirit of independence and creative ambition.
HARVEST is too tonally inconsistent and tediously obtuse to harvest any emotional substance from the ideas that it sows.
