Take a look at the talented acting talent above. These faces, and a bunch more, should be ushered into your living room this month with all manner of awesome comedy, drama, weirdness, offensive content, and, er, rom-coms heading straight to video or on demand services. Some of this stuff we’ve seen and loved, some of it we have been waiting on for a while. Do yourself a favour and check out May’s interesting home video highlights…
Dom Hemingway
In a nutshell: Jude Law adds some major facial hair and affinity for booze as the titular Hemingway in this crime comedy, with Richard E. Grant (Withnail & I, Hudson Hawk) and Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) co-starring. Having just done a prison stretch, but kept his mouth shut for the duration, safecracker Hemingway sets off to collect what his boss owes him for his silence and re-connect with his estranged daughter.
The buzz: At 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, Dom Hemingway is a bit divisive, but we like much of what we hear, such as the San Francisco Chronicle saying it isn’t about story but “about Jude Law as a force of nature, and that turns out to be a very entertaining diversion”. Film.com goes further, arguing “Jude Law, a little puffier and hairier than usual, turns in a career best performance”.
Reason to Watch: Jude Law is himself having something of a McConnaisance as he moves into more interesting leading man roles, and pairing him with Richard E. Grant promises quality laughs.
The Returned
In a nutshell: Not to be confused with French supernatural TV series Les Revenants, The Returned is set in a post-zombie world where science has stopped the spread of the zombie virus – though it hasn’t cured it. Former zombies, known as the returned, rejoin society but not with the full support of their communities. Facing Anti-Return groups and rumours that the “Return Protein” is running low, a young couple, one of whom is Returned, go on the run.
The buzz: 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, with few outright fans amongst critics. For example, The Globe and Mail says “this is a serious, austere film that feels as if it’s barely restraining the B-movie within. In the end, it fights itself to a draw.”
Reason to Watch: Offering a new spin on the typical undead tale might be enough to make this worth checking out.
Veronica Mars
In a nutshell: TV’s former teen detective Veronica Mars returns in this film funded through Kickstarter, reuniting the cast just in time for a ten-year high school reunion – a convenient time for a new case to draw Mars (Kristen Bell) back to her home town of Neptune, Colorado, and a bunch of familiar faces.
The buzz: 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Chicago Reader, like many reviews, suggests the film is best suited to fans: “The uninitiated may not go for the all-too-convenient crime solving, melodramatic love triangle, and playful banter, but cultists will find all the show’s pleasures intact”.
Reason to Watch: Did you watch the show on telly? Then you should get onto this quick-smart.
Cheap Thrills
In a nutshell: In this dark comedy, a down-on-his-luck father (Pat Healy, Compliance) who’s just lost his job runs into a couple of strangers in a bar and begins to accept a series of increasingly insane challenges for money. The rich, twisted pair (Anchorman‘s David Koechner and The Innkeepers‘ Sara Paxton) take things far beyond the point of reasonableness, not to mention good taste.
The buzz: 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. There are plenty of positive comments, but we’ll cherry-pick this from Salon.com: “Let’s just say it takes a dim view of human nature that seems well supported by the evidence, and that if you have an appetite for fatalistic, dirty-minded gore you won’t be disappointed”.
Reason to Watch: When Cheap Thrills played at the NZ International Film Festival last year, crowds freaking loved it. Those of us who missed it have been hanging out for the chance to see this “nasty piece of work”.
How I Live Now
In a nutshell: Saoirse Ronan (The Grand Budapest Hotel) stars in this futuristic war drama as an American girl who spends a holiday with her family in the English countryside, only to be stranded there after a nuclear strike occurs. Based on the award-winning young adult novel by Meg Rosoff and directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland).
The buzz: 67% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Detroit News says it is “uncomfortably easy to believe”; Village Voice reckon “the film is a fine one, moving and surprising and scraped of most of the love-me! fantasy that typifies formulaic YA.”; and Boston Globe say “weird, weird, weird” – and that’s a positive review!
Reason to Watch: Kids these days have got it too good. Let’s think fondly of the days when young people grew up under the shadow of nuclear war, and revisit them with this thriller.
Blue Caprice
In a nutshell: Psychological thriller, based on the true story of a young man who teams up with an unstable father figure, training with weapons and eventually customising a Chevy Caprice to use as a concealed sniper’s nest. Inspired by the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks in Washington DC.
The buzz: 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. “Coolly controlled and extremely well-acted” says the Chicago Tribune; “Don’t miss it” advises the Los Angeles Times; and Rolling Stone state “It means to shake you and does”.
Reason to Watch: An uncomfortable character study anchored by awesome performances? Yep, sign us up!
Age of Uprising (Michael Kohlhaas)
In a nutshell: Palme d’Or-nominated, French-German retelling of the story of Hans Kohlhase – a 16th Century horse dealer, played by Mads Mikkelsen (TV’s Hannibal), who is forced to resort to violence when his property is seized by a greedy nobleman, raising an army against the nobility and embarking on a bloody campaign of retribution.
The buzz: 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. Uh oh, Time Out say the film “succeeds neither as a decent adaptation of the book nor as a rewarding movie in its own right … Dullness prevails.” Empire calls it “cloddy period stodge”, although Australia’s At the Movies say Mikkelsen “is fine in the role, bringing to the part the gravitas and dogged persistence required”.
Reason to Watch: Sounds like this is just one for the diehard Mads fans – or if you’ll sign up for anything with a period setting.
Computer Chess
In a nutshell: Set in the early 1980s and shot in black and white, a group of computer software geniuses gather to pit their creations against each other in battle – artificial intelligences competing against one another in chess matches. Computer Chess follows the nerdy geniuses in and out of competition over the weekend, under the guise of footage from a documentary.
The buzz: 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. Time Out calls this “a supremely intelligent, beautifully constructed film, interweaving comedy and character, satire and subtext” while Variety opines “an endearingly nutty, proudly analog tribute to the ultra-nerdy innovators of yesteryear, this quasi-mockumentary is easy to admire in spirit even when its haphazard construction practically defines hit-or-miss”.
Reason to Watch: If you’re not rolling your eyes at the concept and format, then you really should be checking this surprisingly funny and surreal pic out.
Save the Date
In a nutshell: In this romantic dramedy, Sarah (Lizzy Caplan) rejects her boyfriend’s marriage proposal and ditches him, turning to her sister Beth (Alison Brie) for support – except Beth is busy organising her own nuptials. As Sarah finds herself swept up in a rebound romance, she begins to question her ideas about independence and singledom.
The buzz: 46% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Los Angeles Times liked the leads, but says “the film is never truly interesting”; NPR scathingly describes the film as “a merely adequate addition to the raft of romantic comedies for those pushing 30 without adult lives to call their own”; though AV Club are more positive, saying “smart, funny, sexy, sad and refreshingly devoid of clichés, Save The Date occupies a higher evolutionary plane than most other wedding-themed romantic comedies.”
Reason to Watch: We guess you gotta be really into rom-coms, have major crushes on Caplan and Brie, or all of the above. We meet some of these criteria.
The Spoils of Babylon
In a nutshell: A comedy miniseries taking the mickey out of epic 1970s and 1980s miniseries adapted from novels like The Thorn Birds, The Spoils of Babylon features an all-star cast including Tobey Maguire, Kristen Wiig, Tim Robbins, Jessica Alba, Val Kilmer, Haley Joel Osment, Michael Sheen and Will Ferrell. Forbidden love, drug addiction, business intrigue and other potboiler elements jostle for position with absurdist spoof comedy in the vein of Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles) or Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (Airplane!).
The buzz: 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. Slate calls the miniseries “both a loving and completely silly send-up of a certain sort of dead-serious period piece, full of bad acting, over-the-top twists, and a swelling score”; “Succeeds on almost every satiric level in lampooning those bloated, overwrought ’70s miniseries (Rich Man, Poor Man) that people of a certain age will remember with some nostalgic fondness” says the New York Post.
Reason to Watch: If you have fond memories of terrible miniseries and awesomely stupid comedy this you’ve gotta see (we have, and it rules). But maybe you had to be there…
Reissue of the Month
The Fury
In a nutshell: Director Brian De Palma’s follow up to Carrie was this 1978 supernatural thriller which touched on some apparently similar notions – teenage girl discovers powers of telekinesis, ESP and other, dangerous, abilities – but the scope’s much wider, following her into an institute where psychics are being secretly weaponised. Carrie’s Amy Irving stars, alongside Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress and Charles Durning. The Fury also features early performances by Dennis Franz (his debut), Daryl Hannah and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him Jim Belushi.
The buzz: 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. Variety seemed to like it, but still say “there is never, anywhere, a coherent exposition of what all the running and jumping is about”; Roger Ebert calls the film “a stylish entertainment, fast-paced, and acted with great energy”; and Scott Weinberg labels the film “one of De Palma’s flawed-yet-fascinating early experiments”.
Reason to Watch: If Carrie, David Cronenberg’s Scanners, or more recently the Alfonso Cuarón TV series Believe are up your alley – well, this probably will be too.
