Will Crabbe

Reviews and other content aren't verified by Google

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Ben Wheatley's films. I absolutely loved the wonderfully visceral and terrifying Kill List, but I really disliked High-Rise and couldn't really get on board with A Field in England. However, all of his films have usually left an impact on me in some form or another, whether it be positive or negative. His latest film In The Earth is an intense, psychedelic folk horror made during the COVID-19 pandemic that reflects the residual fears and impact the events have made on the world. The film follows a scientist and park ranger who travel into a large and dense forest outside of Bristol to try and locate a missing researcher who went into the woods to examine the plant life in order to try and improve crop growth efficiency. Things quickly become darker as they discover an abandoned camp and come across a grizzled woodsman survivalist who seems to have an unusual connection with the forest. I thought the film was wonderful. The atmosphere, the music, the visuals, the performances were all great and it was one of the most intense and visceral cinema experiences I've ever had. It builds up slowly and effectively with an excellently paced delivery that kept a sense of unease and anxiety within me throughout. The use of sound and editing helped to create a palpable sense of dread, with the audience anticipating something that may or may not come. At the centre of the whole thing is a Lovecraftian mystery regarding an ancient spiritual force known as 'Parnag Fegg' that connects all life forces within the forest via a dense and vast network of mycorrhiza (fungus) beneath the forest floor and an enigmatic standing stone. Things are never really truly explained and we don't get much sense of how everything works, but that's what makes the experience so terribly unsettling. The terror of the unknowable and the incomprehensible. There's also some more traditional horror film brutality we would typically come to expect from classic grindhouse cinema, and it executed with a dry wit and delightful glee. Wheatley clearly revels in making his audience squirm. Overall, I think this may be my favourite Ben Wheatley film to date and it's one of my favourite releases from 2021 thus far. It is a very unconventional horror film though, more of a kaleidoscopic terror trip than anything else which could prove alienating to many. However, I absolutely loved it.

Francis Lee's newest film Ammonite explores the relationship that develops between palaeontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) when they spend 6 weeks together on the beaches of Lyme Regis. I couldn't help comparing this film to Lee's previous work God's Own Country as a lot of the plot beats and execution seemed very noticeably similar. There's also quite a few nods to Céline Sciamma's wonderful romantic drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire scattered throughout. Herein lies a problem. I never felt the same chemistry between Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan in Ammonite as I did between Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel in Portrait (except for maybe one scene). Not to detract from the performances of the leads here - Winslet was great and Ronan probably played the boldest role of her career thus far - but chemistry is a huge part of a film like this. The colour palette of the film is also very grey and muted, perfectly reflecting the drab majesty of the English coast. Likely this was intentional, but it seemed to contrast with the fiery passion that rears its head throughout (again comparing to the vibrant colours of Portrait of a Lady on Fire). The production and costume design were both excellent and was probably the strongest aspect of the film. The historical accuracy of the film has come under scrutiny from critics, as while Mary Anning and Charlotte Murchison did indeed meet and become close friends, there is no evidence that the two ever shared a romantic relationship. You could view this as a hypothetical scenario, given that in the 19th century, women were hardly free to pursue and openly express same-sex romantic relationships. The film therefore serves as more than a historical drama, but as a tribute to the potential untold stories of forbidden love throughout history. To summarise, Ammonite is a slow and quiet love story with explosions of passion, but ultimately it feels like a muted version of Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Driven by the purposefully offbeat acting and line delivery combined with the comically horrible audio dubbing, Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway pays tribute to the low to no-budget flicks from the 70s and 80s. Shot on 16mm camera and with liberal use of vintage technology, it perfectly captures the retro-futuristic aesthetic of films of that era. Accompanied by a cacophonous and eclectic soundtrack, the film is almost like an Arnold Schoenberg symphony put to screen. It's loud, discordant, and it shouldn't make sense, but it remains staunchly loyal to the internal logic of itself. Perfectly ordered chaos. One of the most gloriously insane experiences I've had for a while, I had a big grin on my face the whole time. It takes the absurdism of things like The Mighty Boosh and dials it up to eleven.

Testament is probably the least bombastic and explosive film about the aftermaths of nuclear war you'll ever see. What we are presented with instead is a deeply intimate and poignant family/small town drama centred around the Oscar-nominated lead performance from Jane Alexander. The film is set in the small town of Hamelin in California which manages to remain unscathed when nuclear bombs rain down on the major cities in the US. The townsfolk count themselves lucky to have survived the attacks and attempt to bunch together to continue living their lives as normally as they can. Fairly quickly though the hopelessness and despair starts to seep in as the bodies start to pile up and the fallout and radiation from the bombs begins to take hold of the community. We never see the terrifying immediacy of mushroom cloud explosions, blown-out buildings or charred corpses we observed in films like The Day After and Threads, but Testament offers something more: the overwhelming despair of watching society disintegrate and fall apart in slow motion whilst accepting your own mortality in a seemingly empty future. This is one of the most sobering films made about the futility of nuclear warfare and the direction from Lynne Littman is stellar. She manages portray this story in a manner that doesn't come across preachy or voyeuristic. Definitely check this one out if you can.

Set on the picturesque Italian Riviera and at times feeling like a pale imitation of the work of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, Luca is the latest film released by Pixar and follows a sea monster with the ability to walk on land as a human who explores the coastal town of Portorosso (a nod to Miyazaki's Porco Rosso maybe?) with his new friend Alberto. The early critical response for this film was unenthusiastic and lukewarm while more recent audience feedback has been very positive (just look at the average rating here on Letterboxd). Luca has certainly been resonating with some and I can see why. It's full of charm and tells a gentle story of youth, friendship and chasing dreams. It tries to pull off the simplicity of Ghibli films such as Kiki's Delivery Service or Ponyo and definitely succeeds in some regards such as the idyllic setting, but unfortunately this film fell flat for me. The characters were uninteresting, making it hard to connect with any of the emotional moments or beats the film was going for. There were a few moments from Luca's parents Daniela and Lorenzo that had me chuckling, but this was mostly the only reaction that the film could elicit from me. The animation is generally wonderful and is undoubtedly the best part of the film, but the character models are just plain ugly. They resemble some sort of horrid cross between the characters from the game 'Two Point Hospital' and Aardman's Wallace and Gromit. It almost felt like more effort had been made into realising the world and environment than the characters themselves. The film is certainly not bad, it has some lovely vibrant animation and a distinct warmth and nostalgia, but it is exceptionally unremarkable and will be forgotten very quickly in my mind at least. Luca certainly doesn't help to buck the idea that Pixar are losing their golden touch (Soul was maybe an exception to the rule), and it is probably one of the weakest films they've released since The Good Dinosaur. We can only hope that one day we will see the next The Incredibles or Ratatouille, but for now we will have to accept perfectly fine efforts from a studio formally renowned for excellence.

Kill List is certainly one of the more interesting and unconventional horror films I've had the pleasure of watching recently. The film begins as a slow-burn violent crime thriller before morphing itself into a terrifying, visceral horror by the ending. Knowing director Ben Wheatley's other work (Sightseers, A Field in England), you'd expect this film to throw some surprises at you and it doesn't disappoint. The film follows Jay and Gal (played by Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley, respectively), former British soldiers who have become contract killers in order to make a living. They accept a big job from a shadowy client that involves killing three targets. However, Jay appears to still be disturbed by an unspecified event that occurred during his time in Kyiv, and this manifests within his behaviour on the job that continues to spiral out of control. The violence is brutal and unrelenting, and the atmosphere is kept deeply unsettling throughout by the use of a score that bears resemblance to Robert Egger's The VVitch (2016). There's a constantly bubbling unease under the surface veneer of the film, as we the audience feel there's something more going on than what we are presented. This mystery viciously bubbles over to the surface and reveals itself in the most uncompromising of manners that will shock you to your core. Reminiscent at times of films that I won't name for the fear of giving the game away, Kill List is a deeply disturbing affair that will leave a mark in your mind and cause even the most seasoned horror veterans to break out in a cold sweat.

Oxygen is a French psychological thriller directed by experienced horror director Alexandre Aja (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes, Crawl) and stars Melanie Laurent and Mathieu Amalric. After a woman (Laurent) wakes up in a cryogenic chamber with no memory of who she is or how she got there, she realises the chamber is quickly running out of oxygen and must work with an AI (voiced by Amalric) to find a way to escape before time runs out. The film is similar to Rodrigo Cortes's Buried (2010) in many regards. Both films follow a single character trapped inside a box with a limited supply of air which serves as the central ticking time bomb of the narrative. However, Oxygen differs in that there's a much greater focus on story and exposition. We piece together alongside the main character the history and sequence of events that led to the current situation through various flashbacks and memory jogs. Up until around the hour mark, Oxygen doesn't quite have the right to call itself a thriller as apart from the opening scenes, we were treated to a rather dull affair. The setting was no where near as claustrophobic as the pitch-black coffin of Buried, and the sense of dread and impending doom was not portrayed as effectively as it should have. What Oxygen does better though is produce a more visually striking film with some interesting science fiction concepts that explore thematic elements regarding the nature of consciousness and the drive of human survival. There are some twists and turns that caught me off guard and a strong central performance from Melanie Laurent, but I do feel it could have benefited from the same claustrophobic simplicity that made Buried great.

We all watch films and go to the cinema in the hopes of seeing the birth of a classic. In The Heights is one of those films. From the very first shots we are treated to a vibrant, colourful, and creative energy that will bombard our senses for the following two hours. The film is a celebration of culture, community and life itself, finding beauty and colour in the everyday routines and mundanities. We follow everyday people in this immigrant neighbourhood of Washington Heights and have a glimpse into the sueñito (little dream) that each of our main characters holds deeply entrenched in their heart as they work to make it a reality. The cinematography is wonderful and the musical numbers will have you moving in your seat and wanting to join in the exuberant and celebratory dancing of the characters. The music fuses traditional musical theatre numbers with latin flair and a touch of rap and hip-hop. The massive and epically choreographed centrepiece number 96,000 was a personal favourite of mine, alongside Olga Merediz's stunning and tear-jerking solo number "Paciencia y Fe". The performances from the cast all round were stellar, with leading man Anthony Ramos putting in a star turn as Usnavi that will definitely turn some heads, and Melissa Barrera great as aspiring fashion designer Vanessa. In The Heights marks a major cornerstone in the modern renaissance and reimagination of the musical and will surely be remembered in the way that the greats of the genre such as West Side Story currently are. An absolute delight on every level, In The Heights is the electrifying film we needed and will be the definitive summer hit of 2021. It's contagious and boisterous energy will inevitably capture audiences hearts worldwide.

The directorial debut from former The Inbetweeners star Simon Bird is a funny and charming coming of age story that follows the dysfunctional relationship between a moody and nihilistic teenager and his depressed divorcee mother as they are forced to spend an entire summer together. The film manages to capture perfectly the awkwardness of British adolescence and Earl Cave sells the pretentious and mopey teenager that is all too familiar to me. Monica Dolan was also great as Daniel's mum Sue and the use of Belle & Sebastian contrasted by heavy metal in the soundtrack was a great choice to mirror the inherent central conflict of the film. It's a fairly standard and simplified story and the film lulls quite badly in the middle section, but it shows promise for the future career for Simon Bird. Maybe he was made to be behind the camera and not in front of it.