Turning Red (2022)

“Growing Up is a Beast”

Directed by Domee Shi (feature debut)
Starring Rosalie Chiang (feature debut), Sandra Oh (Over the Moon), Ava Morse (Ron’s Gone Wrong), Hyein Park (feature debut), Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (feature debut), Orion Lee (Zack Snyder’s Justice League), Wai Ching Ho (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), Tristan Allerick Chen (Ron’s Gone Wrong) and James Hong (Kung Fu Panda)

Meilin Lee (Chiang) is an extroverted, independent 13 year old, determinedly forging her own path alongside her bestie squad – Miriam (Morse), Priya (Ramakrishnan) and Abby (Park) – while also devoting time to tending a family-run shrine to her ancestress Sun Yee with her mother, Ming (Oh). In school, she’s a firecracker math geek and devoted ‘4*Townie’, while at home she’s a diligent and respectful daughter. When her mother discovers a book of fevered pubescent sketches, however, the resulting scene and ensuing humiliation awaken something in Meilin; something… furry.

The Batman (2022)

“Unmask the Truth”

Directed by Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes)
Starring Robert Pattinson (Tenet), Zoë Kravitz (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald), Paul Dano (Cowboys and Aliens), Jeffrey Wright (No Time to Die), John Turturro (Transformers), Andy Serkis (Black Panther) and Colin Farrell (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them)

In the streets of Gotham City, the vigilante known as the Batman (Pattinson) battles crime with a sinister suit and brutal punchings. Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Wright) brings him into the investigation of the murder of Gotham’s civic leaders by a serial killer calling himself Riddler (Dano), who leaves messages promising ‘no more lies.’ As he follows the trail to a nightclub run by mob underboss the Penguin (Farrell) on behalf of Carmine Falcone (Turturro), he finds an ally in hostess/burglar Selina Kyle (Kravitz) and begins to unpick a web of corruption and betrayal which leads back to the Renewal Fund, a charitable foundation established by the late Thomas Wayne.

Uncharted (2022)

“One ordinary man… One extraordinary adventure”

Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Venom)
Starring Tom Holland (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Mark Wahlberg (Transformers: The Last Knight), Sophia Ali (Bad Kids of Crestview Academy), Tati Gabrielle (The Emoji Movie) and Antonio Banderas (The Legend of Zorro)

Separated from his brother Sam after pulling one too many pre-teen museum heists, Nathan Drake (Holland) is living as a barman and pickpocket until Victor ‘Sully’ Sullivan (Wahlberg), Sam’s former partner, recruits him to help steal a cross which is one of two keys to the lost treasure of almost the first man to circumnavigate the globe, Ferdinand Magellan. After securing the cross, they meet up with Sully’s untrustworthy contact Chloe Frazer (Ali), who has the other key. Opposing them are Santiago Moncada (Banderas), heir to the banking house that funded Magellan’s voyage and his henchwoman Braddock (Gabrielle).

The King’s Man (2021)

Directed by Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class)
Starring Ralph Fiennes (In Bruges), Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans), Rhys Ifans (Alice Through the Looking Glass), Matthew Goode (Downton Abbey), Tom Hollander (Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation), Harris Dickinson (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil), Daniel Brühl (Captain America: Civil War), Djimon Hounsou (Shazam!) and Charles Dance (Godzilla: King of the Monsters)

During the Boer War, Red Cross volunteer Orlando, Duke of Oxford (Fiennes) loses his wife during an attempt on the life of Lord Kitchener (Dance), becoming as a result extremely protective of his son, Conrad (Dickinson). As war looms between the nations of Europe, lead by George V (Hollander), Tsar Nicholas (Hollander) and Kaiser Wilhelm (Hollander), Oxford and his retainers – domestic staff turned ersatz family Shola (Hounsou) and Polly (Arterton) – continue to avoid the direct conflict, but engage in a shadow war with forces marshalled by the mysterious Shepherd.

Sing 2 (2021)

Directed by Garth Jennings (The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
Starring Matthew McConaughey (The Dark Tower), Reese Witherspoon (A Wrinkle in Time), Scarlett Johansson (Isle of Dogs), Taron Egerton (Kingsman), Bobby Cannavale (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Tori Kelly (Sing), Nick Kroll (The Secret Life of Pets 2), Pharrell Williams (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping), Halsey (Teen Titans GO! to the Movies), Chelsea Peretti (Game Night), Letitia Wright (Black Panther), Eric André (The Mitchells vs. the Machines), Adam Buxton (feature debut), Garth Jennings, Peter Serafinowicz (The Phantom Menace), Jennifer Saunders (Shrek 2), Nick Offerman (The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part) and Bono (Across the Universe)

The heroes of Sing – impressario Buster Moon (McConaughey) and his assistant Miss Crawley (Jennings), singers Meena (Kelly) and Johnny (Egerton), dancer Gunter (Kroll) and triple-threat Rosita (Witherspoon) – are enjoying a string of theatrical successes under the watchful eye of patron Nana Noodleman (Saunders), but dream of translating their show from the New Moon to the bright lights of Redshore City. Talent scout Suki (Peretti) tells Buster that they would not make it in the Vegas-like Redshore, but Moon decides to take the troupe, plus budding rock star Ash (Johansson), and basically break into closed auditions for hotel and theatre magnate Jimmy Crystal (Cannavale). When Crystal rejects their show, Moon and Gunter spontaneously pitch an ambitious sci-fi musical and end up contracted to produce the show in three weeks and make good on Moon’s false assurances that he can secure not only the rights to the songs of reclusive rock legend Clay Calloway, but also Calloway’s personal participation.

A Look Ahead to 2022

So, this is daring of me, to assume I’ll be able to make a respectable number of films in 2022; enough to have to plan ahead even. This list is just based on what is currently scheduled to be on at the local cinema and has caught my eye, and honestly the main thing to take away from it is how normal it is. Clearly the industry has decided that this year they can take a solid chance on not losing weeks and weeks to Covid flare ups and lockdowns, which means this is going to be a serious test of that model.

21 pick up

Screw it, I’m done with the jokes about how movie scenes all ignore social distancing guidelines.

So, there are a few I want to try to catch up on after Omicron (that’s the Omicron variant, a particularly virulent strain of Covid-19) shut the office again and I didn’t manage to see anything in the last week or so before Christmas:

• West Side Story – Spielberg’s take on Bernstein and Sondheim’s take on Shakespeare’s take on da Porto’s take on Salernitano’s tragedy of Romeo and Juliet took a real beating at the box office, probably in part because of Omicron. I almost certainly won’t manage to see this one at the cinema, so it could be a while.
• The Matrix Resurrections – Similarly, I wasn’t able to get to see Lana Wachowski’s return to the world of The Matrix. I might be able to catch the tail end of its cinema time, depending on how it does overall and what shows up to replace it.

2021 in (and out of) Cinema

2020 really took a toll, eh?

So… How’s it going?

After 2020, the future of cinema was basically in serious question. Certainly in the UK the government policy of pretending that everything was fine as long as no-one who went to Eton was sick meant that everything closed again immediately after Christmas. Release dates were in flux, so I don’t even have my usual ‘what I planned to see’ post to compare to this here annual round up. I saw basically nothing new in January or February, as the studios held onto their releases in anticipation of theatres reopening.

Once things got going, cinemas began to open in a socially distanced way, and the crowds were fairly sparse, which suits me much better than it does the cinemas. There were also a lot of simultaneous or rapid releases to streaming services, especially Disney+, including premium releases with additional fees and the controversy of Black Widow‘s split release. Then the government policy of basically feeding anyone who can’t afford a chauffeur into the meat grinder saw public transport fill up and cinemas cramming more and more people in. Finally, the Omicron variant came along in the latter part of the year to mess with us again and I imagine (hope) we’ll have another pretty meagre January.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

More than usual spoiler warnings

“The Multiverse Unleashed.”

Seriously, if you haven’t seen the film and intend to, it’s well worth going in as cold as you can. I’m even putting the cast list below the line.

White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake (2021)

Directed by Amp Wong
Starring (English dub) Vivian Yu, Faye Mata and Stephanie Sheh

The white snake demon Blanca (Sheh) attacks a temple to attempt to reclaim her husband from the demon-hunting abbot Fahai, joined by her reluctant sister, Verta (Yu). Defeated by the abbot’s superior golden magic, Blanca is sealed beneath a pagoda and Verta banised to Asuraville, which is either a purgatory for those whose mortal obsessions prevent their reincarnation, or an 80s synth-pop act.

Encanto (2021)

“There’s a little magic in all of us …almost all of us.”

Directed by Jared Bush (Zootopia) and Byron Howard (Tangled)
Starring Stephanie Beatriz (In the Heights), María Cecilia Botero (English language feature debut, at the age of 66), John Leguizamo (John Wick), Mauro Castillo (feature debut), Jessica Darrow (Feast of the Seven Fishes), Angie Cepeda (Kill Chain), Carolina Gaitán (feature debut, aside from a background role in The Greatest Showman), Diane Guerrero (Killerman), Adassa (acting debut), Rhenzy Feliz (All Together Now), Ravi-Cabot Conyers (The Artist’s Wife), Maluma (acting debut) and Wilmer Valderrama (Blast Beat). Also, Alan Tudyk (Moana) once more plays a bird that doesn’t actually speak, because this is his life now.

The family Madrigal are part of a community who fled the violence which descended on their original home. Abuela Alma (Botero) and her three infant children escaped thanks to the sacrifice of her husband, Pedro, and a miracle which transformed a candle into a perpetual flame, created a magical valley and house – the Encanto and the Casita – and gifted the children and their children with magical gifts. Years later, Abuela’s daughters Pepa (Gaitan) and Julieta (Cepeda) have the power to control weather and heal via cooking and her son Bruno (Leguizamo) has long-since left the casita. Pepa has married the laid back Felix (Castillo) and had three children – Dolores (Adassa) who hears everything, Camilo (Feliz) the shape-shifter, and Antonio (Conyers) who has not yet come of age – as have Julieta and her husband Agustin (Valderrama) – impractically perfect Isabela (Guerrero) with her ability to make flowers grow, unfeasibly mighty Luisa (Darrow) and Mirabel (Beatriz), who alone among the family did not receive a gift when she came of age.