FILMS

Film Reviews by Jordan Adcock SMILE

FILM OF THE MONTH - Star Rating: 3.5/5

Smiles aren’t always benign or positive, even in our (hopefully) nonhaunted world. In Smile, they’re an eerie mark of imminent suicide, in a straightforward, enjoyable horror film that’s not insulting and cheap for a change. It’s enough to put a smile on your face, if you’re not too creeped or grossed out while watching it!

Dr Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon, daughter of Kevin) is a psychologist who witnesses a patient freak out before killing herself right in front of her – all while wearing a wicked, unnatural smile. Rose suddenly feels haunted everywhere she goes, not sure where her hallucinations end and reality begins, descending into madness as she discovers her horrible curse’s true nature – and she keeps seeing that smile…

That Smile isn’t exactly original, and there are some issues with the screenplay (Rose’s fiancé kind of disappears from the film and there are some logic questions with how the premise plays out), shouldn’t detract from the scares it executes well. Even as it’s perhaps longer than needed, it has lots of fun wrongfooting your expectations in all of its spooky scenes.

Sosie Bacon also capably performs Rose’s emotions and mental states as she slowly regresses from adult professional to returning to the childhood trauma that underpins her character and that the evil entity feeds on. In a film with lots of horrid violence, jump scares and where reality’s very slippery for her character, she keeps things genuinely disturbing instead of tacky or ironic. ✪

THE WOMAN KING DON’T WORRY DARLING LUCK

Star Rating: 3/5 Star Rating: 2.5/5 Star Rating: 2/5

Viola Davis’ formidable onscreen presence is front and centre in The Woman King as Nansica, fierce leader of the Agojie, women warriors of the West African kingdom of Dahomey trying to cast off the Oyo Empire’s oppressive control. The main storyline is shown through Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), a spirited girl who joins the Agojie and whose past is linked to Nansica’s. It’s too long at over two hours, the cast in general isn’t all that well developed and there’s been controversy regarding how much the film glosses over Dahomey’s true involvement in the slave trade. Still, there’s plenty of full-on, if pretty frenetically filmed, violent action as the Agojie fight slavers and free their own people, plus Davis and Mbedu are undeniably compelling to watch throughout. ✪ After watching Don’t Worry Darling, it’s not surprising it’ll be remembered more for the behind-the-scenes drama between director Olivia Wilde and Shia LaBeouf, who was then replaced by Harry Styles. The film may be stylish enough as it evokes 1950’s Americana in a desert town project called Victory, where the men all go off to work, the women stay domestic and all is not as it seems. The story has lots of shock scenes but the effects are momentary rather than a building suspense or sinister feel; indeed, the film’s one direction is towards a thoroughly groan-inducing attempt to link the film to current social topics. Florence Pugh and Chris Pine’s acting talents keep the film together, while Styles’ physical performance convinces more than his line readings. ✪ Now streaming on Apple’s TV+ streaming service, Luck has the hallmarks of a classic Pixar film like Monsters, Inc.; where controlling everyone’s luck is just a job for leprechauns and a black cat, accidentally discovered by teenage orphan Sam, who’s desperate for some good luck in her life. But while Pixar’s best films combined ingenious concepts with clever worldbuilding and unforgettable characters, Luck spends so much screentime explaining how its magical luck contraptions work while having very little for its main characters to do in its very thin story. The film’s just more uninspired than unlucky, where even the animation feels lethargic compared to even usual fare and the messages are too obvious and clunkily told to resonate. ✪

THE LOST KING

Star Rating: 2/5

“Based on a true story” isn’t so much stretched as nearly buried under the narrative that The Lost King is determined to have. Philippa Langley’s amateur efforts to locate the remains of King Richard III, which then became a full-blown archaeological project with the University of Leicester, are a remarkable real-life story and Sally Hawkins is of course very good portraying her. It’s therefore sad and a bit ironic to read detailed press reports that the filmmakers, even as it focuses on Richard III’s image being unfairly maligned, it’s apparently erased some of the actual female academics involved and portrays the male academics as lazy, snobbish and credit-stealing, falsely so compared to the real people, to tell a timely, “worthy” story of a lone amateur woman showing up the maledominated establishment. ✪