Love them, or hate them, Christopher Nolan has delivered some epic movie of this generation and his take on a historic event was always going to be an interesting proposition, so when Dunkirk was announced it immediately started the headlines flowing. An ambitious project indeed, but if anybody could pull it off Nolan’s name would be on the shortlist.

Focusing on the massive evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940, as the German army closed in on the remaining Allied forces, cornered on the beach, who’s only escape route was across the sea to Britain. Dunkirk tells it’s story from three aspects, land, sea and air, each featuring it’s own characters who’s paths cross at differing moments and in varying ways through the course of the movie. We see Farrier (Tom Hardy) who is flying across the English Channel to provide air support with fellow pilot Collins (Jack Lowden) and their squadron leader. Mr.Dawson (Mark Rylance) who answers the call for all civilian boats to assist in the evacuation and set off to rescue as many as his small vessel will hold and Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) who is coordinating the removal of as many men as possible before they are overrun by the advancing German forces.

 

 

While these three stars may be the A-Listers in terms of the cast, their roles, while pivotal are not the central focus of the film and they are just another member of the ensemble cast. The most screen time and closest character to a protagonist falls to a young British soldier Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) who we see running from the German from the opening scenes in the movie, seemingly destined to fail no matter what he tries as one attempt after another to escape falls flat. There are numerous other players to varying degrees but, while the acting was strong all around this is not a character piece so the general anonymity of the cast was a great call since these people are just another number in a bigger picture. They can only try and do what they can in the moment and the choices they make can mean life or death alluding to the blind luck involved in making it through the moment. Turn left or right, step up or down, each decision could save, or kill you a few moments later. There is plenty of action, death and explosions but it’s not visceral. There’s little blood and no shots of bodies strewn around as there is no time for that, remaining unscathed from one moment is a bonus, it’s time to focus on getting through the next and there is little time to reflect before the next hazard appears. The horrors of war in this tale are all psychological.

 

This was the great selling point of the film for me, there’s no back story for the people involved so you don’t have a chance to really connect and engage with the characters, they are all just pawns. There’s no expositional speeches of how they came to be in the moment, nobody cares, it’s all about survival, by any means necessary. For long periods of the movie there is no dialogue at all, but there doesn’t need to be, the action on the screen is telling you everything you need to know and you feel like you are living the moment. The disappointment, the desperation, the fear and the hope are all played through a combination of imagery and Hans Zimmers superb score. There’s a massive feeling of a ticking clock through the majority of the running time thanks to Zimmer’s influence in making the tension so palpable through sound alone.

I particularly loved the moments in the skies, with the dog fights being superbly shot that’s to some excellent camera placement. There’s no over the top action, with barrel rolls and unrealistic manoeuvres. This is a small scale, high risk operation with thousands of lives at risk which all adds gravitas to the situation.

 

 

The movie is a story of a moment in time, not a story of the people involved. There’s bravery, sacrifice, selfishness, cowardice and heroism all on show but it’s not about the actions of the few it’s about the big picture of allowing as many as possible escape the moment , re-group and prepare to fight the enemy another day.

It would be wrong to call this an enjoyable movie in terms of entertainment value but as a spectacle, needing to be watched on the big screen for full effect, it has to be admired for the epic movie that has been created with very little CGI used and it’s a movie which deserves to be added to the list of classic war films. Nolan may still polarise audiences but for me he has cemented his position as a genius of modern cinema with this latest effort.

DJ Speaks Rating: 7.5 Out Of 10

© Darren Jones 2017

Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a young man who works for the criminal kingpin Doc (Kevin Spacey) as a getaway driver. Having suffered an accident as a child his hearing is effected by tinnitus so he uses music to overcome the situation and assist him focus on tasks at hand. When he meets Debora (Lily James) and they bond over their love of music, Baby finally begins to see a chance for a life away from his current profession. But, love never flows that easy and baby’s attempts to free himself from the crime world are a lot more difficult than he expects and with the talents he has being irreplaceable he is forced into working with Doc’s crew once again but this time enough is enough and he kicks in his escape plan leading to a showdown with some unexpected twists.

 

 

With such a strong director filmography to date, an Edgar Wright release always comes with a high level of expectation, so my hopes for Baby Driver were very high especially after the high octane trailer driven along by Radar Love by Golden Earring and what Wright seems to be able to do is bring the comic elements of his previous movies into serious movies so that there’s enough action to keep you engaged but it’s interspersed with comic dialogue and wit that adds levity to the tension yet all packaged together keeps the movie ebbing and flowing between either extreme without ever peaking at either end which might sound a little dull but I promise you, it is not.

One point of note that must be lauded from the rooftops is the use of music through the film, not only is it a superb soundtrack of songs but each piece of music plays a part within the story and in a lot of cases the scenes pace and rhythm is in time with the score which is a brilliant unique turn for film which is not a musical.

 

 

The camera work through the whole film is great with some super tracking shots and pivoting camera works all at just the right time to enhance the moment while the driving scenes are excellent and with one of two exceptions there is no sign of CGI adding a real sense of realism add excitement to the chases, very refreshing considering some of the more recent over the top car related movie plots (I’m looking at you Fate Of The Furious!!)

Ansel Engort is superb as Baby, while I hadn’t seen much from him prior to this to suggest it, he looks like he could be a star as he more than holds his against his illustrious co-stars. The fact that you are often watching a scene through the music he is listening to gives his character much more audience impact, which is another great call by Wright. Jamie Foxx looks like he is loving his over the top role as Leon Bats, the loose cannon in the pack, Jon Hamm and Eiza Gonzalez as the Bonnie & Clyde like duo Buddy & Darling bring a different intensity to the group and even the smaller players feel like they are important parts of the tale to give a great ensemble feel to the plot.

 

 

One gripe is that the love story, while imperative to the plot, sometimes felt like the weak aspect of the film. Nothing to do with the performance of James but it seemed a little stretched at times although I am being picky. There were elements of film noir, seventies crime thrillers and even some aspects of Tarantino in the film so, while it not an original story it’s handled in such a unique way, when coupled with Wright’s style, it creates a super film full of humour, tension, action and a little bit of romance thrown in for good measure like a cocktail of classic pieces of each genre where the part all add to the package and there a even a few Easter eggs for fans of Wright’s earlier movies to watch out for.

I hope that this one gets the credit it deserves and doesn’t fly under the radar in the season of summer blockbusters as it would be a shame to see this one slide past.

DJ Speaks Rating: 7.5 Out Of 10

© Darren Jones 2017

The Lobster is a black comedy set in a dystopian world where all single people are sent to a hotel where they have forty five days to find a partner otherwise they are transformed into an animal of their choosing to live the rest of their lives. David (Colin Farrell) discovers that his wife has left him for another man so he arrives at the hotel with his brother, a dog, and begins the countdown to finding somebody to spend his life with otherwise he will be turned into the animal of his choice which is a lobster as they have a long life cycle and because of his love for the sea.

The hotel is an awful place full of staged propaganda shows, almost militaristic daily rituals and full of regulations all of which are supposedly designed to enhance the possibility of developing relationships for example masturbation is forbidden and severely punished as a resident known as the lisping man (John C.Reilly) finds out, yet daily sexual stimulation by the maid is part of the routine. There is also a bonus round of sorts where residents go on daily hunts to capture ‘loners’, single people on the run who live in the nearby forest, and can extend their deadline by a day for each person captured.

It soon becomes apparent that finding a partner is not easy as there are expectations around compatibility, and one of David’s ‘friends’ known as the limping man (Ben Whishaw) in the hotel shows just how far people will go to ensure they are not transformed, followed by a series of tests afterwards before they are declared ready for return to society and when David’s time is running out he concocts a plan to find a partner regardless, but things don’t work out quite as expected.

Farrell is superb, in possibly his best performance to date, as David as his delivery of the script sounds almost forced giving the whole situation an almost dream like feel and when coupled with the voice over from Rachel Weisz you begin to wonder if this is an author telling a story or is it somebody recalling a real situation being told in flashback and this uncertainty last for well over half the movie giving it even more of a surreal feel which the tale itself is already doing a very good job of but at the same time the monotone delivery of the narrative seems no different than the conversation on screen so you are constantly unsure of the purpose of the narrator in the story.

I don’t want to give too much away in the review as there is so much which will surprise and shock in equal measures and most of the light hearted moments in a very dark movie are from the unexpected absurdity of how these single people are treated. There’s a performance from Lea Seydoux as the leader of the loners which is so dead pan it makes her appearance in Spectre look full of emotion but in this movie it was perfectly suited.

There is definitely a dig at society and how we are burdened with the expectations of life partners and children while being full of satire that is close enough to the bone to hit home. I enjoyed the movie when I watched it but now, having had a bit of time to digest it I think that this is one of the best movies I have seen in a number of years, it’s slow moving yet doesn’t drag as there’s always something happening, there’s unnecessary use of slo-mo but it sits perfectly with the strangeness of the situation and the fact that only the lead character is ever named adds to the eerie feel of the film. If you are looking for some quick entertaining then don’t try this movie but I can only give it a high recommendation as it’s a superb movie which really gets you thinking long after the credits have rolled.

DJ Speaks Rating: 7.5 Out Of 10

Following on from one of the best horror movies of recent years The Conjuring 2 revisits paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren (Vera Farmiga & Patrick Wilson) as they are investigating the Amityville house where Ronald DeFeo murdered his family, to establish if it was a genuine case of possession or not. During the course of this investigation Lorraine has a vision where she encounters demonic nun figure (Bonnie Aarons) and sees a vision of Ed being murdered before the connection is broken. Soon after Ed is working on a new painting and puts the image of the nun on canvas and this leads to Lorraine wanting to retire from their work but Ed believes they are doing Gods work and cannot give up.

They are contacted by the Catholic church with regard to a potential possession taking place in the UK where Janet Hodgson (Madison Wolfe) seems to be controlled by the spirit of an old man Bill Wilkins (Bob Adrian). When they travel to see the scene for themselves they, and some other investigators Maurice Grosse (Simon McBurney) and Anita Gregory (Franka Potente) try and contact the spirit of Bill before he destroys Janet and her family but all is not as it seems and the demonic nun also has a part to play as both Ed and Lorraine battle for their lives along with the Hodgsons.

I really liked the first movie as it gave us less of the jump scares which populate most horror movies these days and places focus more on the psychological side of horror which is always a good thing. Thankfully this movie goes the same way, there are no spectacular death scenes, theres very little blood and yet the terror feels more magnified. Although there are a few more jump scares than the original, most of which are shown in the trailer, there is more than enough here to scare particularly since it is all based around a true story and there are some great scenes which are reminiscent of the classic horror movies of the 70’s and early 80’s. When you have a horror film where what is happening in the background or even off screen can be key you are onto a winner as it builds the tension superbly.

Once again both Farmiga and Wilson do an excellent job as the investigators and in yet another great performance by a young actress Wolfe is wholly believable as the tormented and possessed girl who shows a huge range of emotions as she swings from terrified girl to evil spirit and back again and the demonic nun is something straight out of your nightmares, there is a brilliant scene based around the above mentioned painting which I guarantee will have you on the edge of your seat.

It’s not a perfect movie but any means, the kids are a little too clean cut for a working class family in 1970 UK and the lack of character building for the rest of the family means that your are less invested in the family unit than you were in the first movie also, the lack of interest by the police considering the potential danger to the family is a bit of a stretch but these are minor quibbles and director James Wan once again really creates an eerie atmosphere through his use of foreboding settings coupled with some terrific camera work and he has solidified himself at the top levels of the horror genre with another hit after his recent work on Insidious and Saw before that. In conjunction with a great script from the Hayes brothers Chad & Carey, who have worked very closely with the Warrens and apparently have their approval to continue to bring their stories to the big screen, they have created a classic horror movie for the modern era. I’ve seen many horrors over the years and I don’t scare easily, but this was one of the few that I’ve seen in the past few years which has stuck in my mind long after the movie ended.

DJ Speaks Rating: 7.5 Out Of 10

Director Shane Black was the writer of the first two Lethal Weapon movies and he has put together another buddy cop movie which hits all the right notes. Ryan Gosling is Holland March a private investigator who’s wife died when their child was young leaving him to bring up their now thirteen year old daughter Holly (Angourie Rice). He is hired to find a adult movie star Misty Mountains who is supposed to be dead but his client is adamant is still alive and this leads him in the direction of Amelia Kutner (Margaret Qualley) who co-starred with Misty in a recent movie but Amelia has her own man on the case to protect herself, in the form of Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) who is more enforcer then investigator and while initially warning Holland off the trail, realises there is something more sinister going on, is smart enough to know he needs help and decides to team up with Holland to get to the bottom of things.

March is an alcoholic and not a very good investigator but he has a strange knack of stumbling across clues when needed most and this leads to some of the funniest moments of the movie where Gosling shows off a great talent for comedy and gives us a great rendition of a Wilhelm scream from time to time. Crowe beefed out for the role and the burly look suits him and his dead pan comedy compliments Goslings exuberance brilliantly so it feels like both actors enjoyed the filming of the movie and it comes across great on the screen with some real chemistry showing. This is all enhanced by Rices performance as the real brains of the operation and this triangular relationship that develops is the real heart of the movie and makes us care about these three characters who, despite the title, are not really particularly nice people. Yes they want to get to the bottom of the investigation, but only because they are being paid and if they can take another slice of the pie along the way, well then they won’t hesitate to do so.

As good as Gosling and Crowe are a special mention must be given to Rice, as for such a young actress to be able to hold her own in scenes with two a-list actors is a testament to her talent so it will be very interesting to see her development from here.

The rest of the cast is very much supporting and a bit of a side show, even Kim Basinger as Amelia’s mother, Judith Kutner didn’t really make much of an impression and the one other character who has some good scenes was the assassin John Boy (Matt Bomer) but he only appears in the movie for a short while so it would have been nice to see him utilised a bit more.

It’s a dark comedy that swings between slap stick moments to clever dialogue for the laughs and although some of the time it misses the mark, thanks to the great chemistry, a good script and the setting of 1977 Los Angeles it works very well and gives us one of the better movies of this year so far that I recommend you check out.

DJ Speaks: 7 Out Of 10

I’m sure you have all seen the original tale of Bagheera, a panther, trying to protect the man cub Mowgli from the clutches of tiger Shere Khan and get him back to the safety of the nearby human village but you have not seen it done using modern cinematic methods and Disney, director John Favreau and his team have created a classic kids movie and Favreau has redeemed himself after the disastrous Iron Man 2 and Cowboys and Aliens which was just as bad.

The attention to detail with not only the main events but with what’s going on in the background needs is superb and there are times when you forget you are watching a cartoon as, at times, it feels like a wildlife documentary and I kept expecting David Attenborough to chip in with some narration. The voice acting is spot on with Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley and in particular Idris Elba all perfect fits although both Scarlett Johansson and Christopher Walker are a little underused. One of the few criticisms I would have is that the scene where the snake Kaa is hypnotising Mowgli is so well done for what is essentially an exposition piece, that it was a shame that the python wasn’t developed into the storyline a little more.

The whole movie feels like an experience and the CGI is so well done that it is very hard to spot many flaws in the interaction between live action Mowgli and the rest of the screen. The eco-system and laws of the jungle that the animals live to all feel like a living, breathing environment so you become immersed in but I would advise that you see it in the cinema as there may be something lost when it gets transferred to the small screen. There’s enough humour to keep it interesting for adults and enough tension and minor jump scares to keep kids on the edge of their seats and if this is the future of this genre of movies then we have a lot to look forward to.

DJ Speaks Rating: 7.5 Out Of 10

The witch is a throwback to the classic horror movies of the 1970’s where atmosphere, tension and a sense of impending doom are the factors that get under your skin. It may be sold as a New England folktale but this is one which has a very dark and disturbing theme and first time director Robert Eggers has put together one of the more chilling movies of recent years.

Colonial settler William (Ralph Ineson) is not pleased with his village elders religious beliefs and he is of the opinion that they are not correctly following the world of God so he and his family are banished from their village and need to start a home for themselves on nearby land beside a forest. At first things are going okay, it’s tough but they are getting by, although the cracks are already beginning to appear when their baby disappears while in the care of their eldest daughter Tomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), they believe it was taken by a wolf into the nearby forest.

This is the catalyst for things to really take a turn for the worse as Williams wife Katherine (Kate Dickie) becomes inconsolable and spends most of her time in bed crying, leaving the running of the household to Tomasin who is becoming more and more resentful of the addition burden and chores which are being pushed her way. While her twin siblings are constantly goading her with taunts that the black goat on the farm, Black Phillip, that they seem to have an eerie bond with keeps telling them that she is a witch and it was she who took their baby brother.

William and his eldest son Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), try to distance themselves from the growing drama on the farm by burying themselves in chores and take to the forest, laying traps to try and catch both the wolf and any other game as the crops on the farm are failing and food is becoming sparse. All the while the atmosphere on the farm is building into an impeding crescendo of doom, it’s just a matter of seeing who will snap first. All the while William and his family try to stay true in their faith that God will put things right once they believe, pray and stay free from sin.

Eggers has stated that The Shining was inspirational to him and the similarities between the demise of William in this movie and Jack Torrance in The Shining are in plain view. Without giving too much away it is with eventual reluctance that William and his family have no choice but to accept that something unnatural is occurring on the farm and the movie then shifts to a plethora of finger pointing, deceit and lies as the families original pious nature is torn apart by self preservation.

The authenticity feel of the dialogue and the bleak setting all add to the atmosphere of the movie. It’s a slow burner but with the use of some jarring music and lots of foreboding it’s far more of a psychological horror than most of the modern movies of it’s genre and this is what elevates it above the rest. Couple that with the fact that it’s also a peek into the human psyche, how faith can be blind, how decision making gets warped under undue pressure and how the family unit, no matter how close it may seem on the outside can be ripped apart by traumatic circumstances.

DJ Speaks Rating: 7.5 Out Of 10

Heart warming tale of trying to find escapism, healing and maybe even a bit of love, through the medium of music in recession gripped Dublin in the mid 1980’s. At the center of the tale is Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) who’s parents are struggling financially and emotionally so he seeks solace from the turmoil of his home life in music and his relationship with his music buff brother Brendan (Jack Reynor). As part of the family cost cutting his parents decide to send Conor to a public, Christian Brothers, school in the coming year (but can still afford alcohol and cigarettes, an all too true aspect of the vast majority of Irish parental prioritisation) This is a shock to his system as his first day is filled with playground fights, an encounter with a bully, hurled rodents and a run in with the authoritarian Brother Baxter (Don Wycherley) for his non conformance to the schools strict, black shoe policy. He finds a kindred spirit in equally ostracised pupil Darren (Ben Carolan) and it is during one of their conversations outside the school that he spots Raphina (Lucy Boynton) loitering nearby so, after mustering the courage to speak with her he finds out she is a model when, in a flash of inspiration he asks if she’d like to star in one of his bands videos, gets a phone number and the wheels are thus set in motion.

Darren and Conor put together a band, which to begin with are terrible but with some guidance from Brendan, who full encourages Conor to pursue his dream in a way he gave up upon years before, things start to take shape and it is this brotherly relationship that is the real heart of the movie. Brendan does not want his younger sibling to follow down the same path, making the same mistakes he did and acts as the real father figure for Conor fully immersing himself as a musical tutor of sorts. The fact that he is stoned most of the time only adds additional comedy to some of their conversations. So with a new found confidence Conor starts to find himself experimenting with different looks as the sound of the band changes depending on which albums Brendan has given him to listen to week on week.

The music used and original songs (written by director John Carney along with Gary Clark of 1980’s band Danny Wilson) are clever takes on the music of the era and the first ‘video’ the band shoot is a hilarious take on something that reminded me of an early Alphaville video. The tongue in cheek references to pop culture and fashion at the time and the mannerisms and language throughout were spot on. Perhaps it was the fact that I lived through the era, spent twelve years in that uniform and spent many, many hours in the places and locations that popped up in the film that made the movie resonate with me more than it would most but I though this was a great throwback to a socially dark period in Irish history.

While lacking the emotion and refined musical qualities of Once and perhaps a little similar in parts to the ideals of The Commitments, Sing Street more than makes up for it with it’s comic story and it’s a much more infectious movie which will keep you smiling throughout. If you are a child of this era and, in particular if you lived in Dublin in the mid 1980 then this movie will speak to you. If not, you still have a great coming of age Irish movie which will have you laughing aloud.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Well directed, well acted and tastefully told so it doesn’t delve into too much detail for shock value which kept the movie very much focused on the journalistic side of the tale and that served the picture very well. Also, the fact that film didn’t try to portray anyone as heroes was a classy move as there were no winners in this story and it felt like the actors were actually living the part as the rolling stone gathered its moss and the cover up went deeper and deeper which gave it an almost documentary like feel at times.

Great acting all around with Michael Keaton playing a great part as the editor of the investigative team (I still preferred his performance in Birdman) and Liev Schreiber excellent as the papers new editor who first highlights the potential story, but Mark Ruffalo was the standout as the bulldog like Mike Rezendes, though I still can’t see him beating Tom Hardy to the best supporting actor Oscar.

I highly recommend that you watch this film, it’s not the quickest paced and the subject matter is delicate so it may not be for everybody, but it’s a well told story and a must for any movie fan.

DJ Speaks Rating: 7.5 out of 10