You, Me & Him (2017)**
Plummy, female-centric comedy drama that looks like all of the extras from Notting Hill did, in fact, find another job. With a host of talent familiar to most British viewers, led by Lucy Punch, Faye Marsay and David Tennant, this is about as casting clique as you could expect to find. If you're in the Daisy Aitkens club, essentially, you'll probably turn up here. It raises the odd smile, but not as funny as it thinks or wants to be, despite the enjoyable performances.
The Kill Room (2023)**
Not the best work you should expect from anyone featured here, least of all Jackson and Thurman who glide through this lightweight dark comedy about using art as an opportunity for money-laundering. Most of the characters are quite unlikeable, but rounded enough to make you feel that way means there is effort here in the plotting, even if the script is, well, all a bit silly. Bland enough to forget you've watched it in a month.
Orion & The Dark (2024)***
This wouldn't normally pique my interest, but the fact that Charlie Kaufman was involved in the writing got the better of my curiosity. I would be lying if I said I didn't recognise Orion's anxiety, but maybe not to the extremes to validate the story. More tongue-in-cheek than outright funny, this does have its finger on the pulse of childhood, which are well observed yet never patronised here. A healthy reminder for adults that will have forgotten half of this stuff in their own march to inevitable maturity.
Share? (2023)*.5
Like an ill-thought episode of Black Mirror. The idea is a timely one, as the majority of our relationships are carried out online, thanks to social media, and this takes this premise one or two steps further, locking people up in front of a camera, and forcing them to entertain for 'likes', which can be used as currency to furnish your prison cell. Came to this from a Bradley Whitford crush, but shouldn't have bothered. Good idea, but done cheap and in a hurry.
Anyone But You (2023)**
Whilst Sydney Sweeney may be de rigeur at the moment for what she clearly understands are some fairly obvious reasons, this doesn't really show off her real talents. The last time I saw her was in Reality, a wholly different and arguably more worthy project. This romantic comedy doesn't really succeed in either department but really comes into its own in the eye candy. If that's what you're after, have at it.
Madame Web (2024)*
I mean really, the things I do for you. People can be so ungrateful. Here I am, literally giving two hours of my life away, whilst actually thinking about what I could do with those two hours when I really, really needed them, instead of watching this. Like, I don't know, hugging my children for just a little longer on my death bed, maybe. On most screens, in most movies, I like almost all of these people. It takes a magnitude of elemental proportions to be this pissed off by their collective presence.Just stop it, this is not doing anybody any good at all. Alleged entertainment is rarely such an interminable chore.
Mean Girls (2024)*.5
Tina Fey must have been watching the original and then Sex Education on the same day, I imagine. This can be the only reason for this existing. What next, Cruel Intentions: The Musical? For the love of god, please no. Without the familiar title and the people that loved it the first time around, this would probably have never reached the screen. Not my cup of tea, to be honest, but neither was the original, which I really enjoyed, as it happens.
No Way Up (2024)**
Colm Meaney and Phyllis Logan were the real draws and made me hope for something better than it really had any right to be. As disaster movies go, this is just about bearable, really for those mentioned above, if you can overlook the crappy scripting, some ham-acting and, well, the shark. Cheap, but well-intentioned and rightly novel, this rips through its running time double-quick but really over eggs the pudding with an increasingly nonsensical plot. Mostly harmless fluff, but have your pinch of salt at the ready.