Suburbicon (2017)

I honestly don’t know where this review is going to go, because I am just so confused. You know when you head into a film screening, having read the synopsis beforehand… but come out even more curious and clueless that you were to begin with? Suburbicon is one of those films.

Before going in, I was sure this was a film – BASED ON WHAT THE INTERNET DESCRIPTIONS SAID, about a family who had to deal with a lot, due to difficulties arising in Suburbicon, and Matt Damon played a ‘Liam Neeson in Taken-esque’, super-dad that kicked ass. I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE WRONG.

I honestly can’t say that this was a bad surprise though, because I can’t think of a film that I have experienced, which is anything like this. I’m going to try and keep this review as generic as possible because of the fact that the synopsis seems to do the same (This film can be spoiled in a second, so I am going to attempt to skip detail where I can).

Suburbicon is the story of an all-white American town/community living situation, in which everything is very calm, and running like clockwork. Nothing bad happens in Suburbicon. Everyone lives in perfect little houses, with a white picket fence, a back porch, a decent sized garden - you get the drift. Then suddenly, things begin to go downhill in the town, and the Lodge family are the ones that are suffering because of this.

The thing that I took away from this film was the awfully random, ill-fitting, unexplained part of the story involving a black American family moving into the town. It was a story about a town of racists in parts. I understand that due to the era this film was meant to be set in, and it being an all-white living area, it makes sense that the event of a black family moving in, will cause conflict. Yes, you can assume that the reason the horrific events that occur, supposedly (from the point of view of the citizens) occurs as a direct result of 3 black people suddenly moving in to the area. But this is just such a disjointed part of the plot, and honestly brings nothing to the story whatsoever, and in fact just confused the plot. As well as it confusing the story, it’s just such a bad depiction of such an event. We have tonnes of films incorporated this theme, and doing something creative with it. The creativity that seemed to be attempted was a giant flop.

The story itself, obviously ignoring this part was gripping. I liked the theme that was chosen, I like how dark it was, and I liked the (possibly) unintentional comedy. Matt Damon plays an awkward Psycho, and his performance surprised me, as it was one that I enjoyed. 

The progression of the story was quick, which was both good and bad. It was good, because it meant it was well paced, overall. I didn’t feel like the film was too long, or too short. It certainly lacked detail, but it was still fine to watch. The setting, at the start of the film, reminded me of the beginning of Edward Scissorhands, so at that point made me feel a bit worried, because that setting can be used badly. In this case, I think it was used well, and it complimented the story… Especially as I thought I was going in to see a TOTALLY different film. But it gradually started to impress me.

The greatest fault that this film has, besides the story, is the script. The script in this film was boring. It was not ‘meaty’, for lack of a better word. I would have written this film off had it not been for the cast, who - on the whole, did the job. This was also the case for the score. Although the score is DEFINITELY not noteworthy, there was one, and it worked with what we were seeing on screen.

Suburbicon is a film that starts off incredibly slowly, and then increasingly becomes more tense, more gritty, and more worth the watch.

5.5/10

CINEMATES - S 

Home Again (2017)

Romantic Comedy Home Again, follows Reese Witherspoon and her family as she embraces newly separated life in LA. She meets 3 young men who begin living in her guest house.

Romcom but kinda just Rom, it's not very funny. There are moments when you can tell there's meant to be a joke and it just doesn't quite meet you. Never offensive but should just be a romance film with some smiles.

I think it was lazily written. As expected it was predictable, and that's okay, that's the point of films like this. Very much a string of coincidences and 'do you believe in destiny' type things going on. It was a very optimistic idea of 20 something year old men, believable? Absolutely. But just as before, a little too easy. I think Witherspoon's Alice had some lines that were spot on, but almost too perfect, as if they were the things you thought of after an argument in the shower not what you said on the spot. But hey maybe that's just how you speak when you're 40, maybe that's intentional.

The cast were good, I mean Reese Witherspoon has expanded in her career but in this instance is back just being, 'woman'. The character doesn't have all that much depth, possibly because we're told about 'her' life directly in the opening sequence and then that's it. You're kinda of left to rely on stereotypes a little bit. Not many characters have much development because there's quite a few of them. They struggle to give the lads strong individuality, and though there's a lot of talk of the soon to be ex-husband, Austen, there's no addition information from Michael Sheen being there in person.

There was a fair bit of unnecessary 'story', Alice having a new job was something and nothing. It tried to pushed the single mum doing it for herself aspect but you just don't relate because there's no risk. It's very first world problem to the point of boring. As is most elements of the film.

It's shot alright it sounds alright but with this type of film there's not where it needs to excel. The priority needs to be with connecting with the audience. We don't have the cliche best friend for us to bounce off of. They highlight the youth of the love interest by basically putting him down to nothing but being cute and not having aged pessimism yet. Which sure is the case for a lot of twenty somethings but it shouldn't be the case for a developed character.

I'd probably leave it on tv until the adverts then change the channel. Fans of romantic movies might give this more of a pass but it was underwhelming as best 4/10 and that's including the attractive men.

CINEMATES - A

My Life as a Courgette (2016)

Young Icare – or Courgette, as his mother called him has a troubling childhood and ends up in a children’s home. With the help of a police officer, and the few friends he makes whilst after his arrival, his life ends up being better than he could have imagined. 

My Life as a Courgette is a French animation film. Even though it is only just over an hour long, and it is jam packed with so many different amazing things. 

The story, although quite simple, is powerful, and beautifully portrayed by these animated characters. You learn about learn each of them, and warm to them throughout the film. We get to know a little bit about the history of each character, but not too much that it takes away from the main point of the film. You can connect with, and a feel for each different character as their different personalities are presented through the everyday activities they are part of, or the smaller scale conflicts.

I came out of this showing truly touched by what I had seen, and the story that had been created. I appreciated everything about it. The music in this film, was once again, a simple touch, but it was something that fitted so well. The screenplay was filled with scenes that demonstrated the different simple emotions we all experience in everyday circumstances, and it was so heart-warming to see that it was from the point of view, and experiences of young children.

The main thing I took away from this was what seemed to be the variety of hidden messages within the script. We followed Courgette as he began to experience new things, new challenges, and new feelings. It was emphasised throughout that looks are not the only thing to make a person beautiful, and this was cleverly shown by the animation. Which is something to look out for if you see this film. 

It’s hard to explain this film without giving too much away, and like I explained, all the important qualities to this film are simple, but that it was makes them great. This is a film that must be seen and not just read about. This animation seems to be so natural that it is almost impossible for it not to tug on the heartstrings of anyone who watches it.

I highly recommend giving this a watch, whether you are an adult or a child. It is refreshing, funny, sad, and just so adorable.

7/10. 

CINEMATES - S 

Train to Busan (2016)

Train to Busan. Holy shit. Dare I say it’s a perfect zombie movie? At this point I don’t know if I could tell you a flaw. Maybe it was a little long? That’s it. Honestly I just love it. When it comes to world cinema I am open minded. If a story sounds great, if there’s a great review, I’ll watch it and deal with subtitles. Though saying that I don’t seek out foreign films, I don’t track directors or actors projects the same way I do for big British and American stars and I don’t often have the same urgency to watch them. Tend to default go in the ‘I’ll get to it’ pile. Train to Busan should go to the top of that pile and I’m sad I’ve waited this long to watch it. Managed to go to a small cinema in our city centre that’s currently having a Korean cinema fest for the month and catch a showing. The screen was packed and it was the second time viewing for a lot of people who already thought of the film as a classic. And I gotta say I agree. If you haven’t watched many foreign films, don’t worry about it, it’s easier than you think and you don’t realise you’re reading after a few minutes. It’ll open up literally a whole world of movies for you if you can get on board with that. Though yeah the rights have already been bought to remake, but that'll take a while, watch the original!

There are some great characters though we’ve seen them before. Most of the reason you get so caught up is because you’re invested. The film is centred around a businessman who’s a single father trying to make his daughter happy by taking her to see her mum on her birthday. He takes time off work to take her on the train, where we meet the rest of the cast. Who might I add, were all included exactly the amount they needed to be. Some less so than others but never not enough. We meet sisters, two older Korean ladies, who natter and have quite a beautiful narrative on the sidelines. There’s our comic relief and beefcake, a man and his very pregnant wife, who possibly have the best relationship throughout. We have a baseball team, primarily one young man and his sweetheart, a rude older suited man that you will learn to hate and a homeless looking man, who repeats the phrase ‘all dead, they’re all dead’. The cast were fantastic. Stand out has got to be Soo-an Kim, the daughter of the protagonist. She held her own against everyone in the film and her performance was heartbreaking and powerful. Great chemistry with her and everyone else in the cast. My favourite, our funny man and powerhouse of the film, Dong-seok Ma, played a character protecting his pregnant wife alongside calling out our main man for the douche that he is. He’s a joy to watch with and without his charming wife. Most jokes came from him, the film was a lot funnier than I first guessed, and in some aspects almost self-aware of that. But everyone goes through the same confusion and everyone builds up trust and respect with each other at a believable pace. A real ensemble.

So ever sit watching something and not realise you’re tensing? That was me throughout basically the whole film. Oh yeah I should breathe, maybe unclench my jaw and relax my bum cheeks. Fantastic at creating and maintaining tension, without leaning on jump scares to prove a point. Though it did have some thrown in for good measure. I remember actively thinking, this is scary, I’ve not been scared by a zombie in a while and this makes me anxious. One of the reasons I love this film some much is because it made me feel. I don’t care what a film makes me feel but if it makes me feel something that’s major points right there. This film covered it’s bases pretty damn well. It was exciting, it made you angry and frustrated. It made you lose hope and gain it. It made you sad. Goddamn is made you sad. There was honestly a woman full on snot sniffing behind me because she was bawling towards the end of this film. It’s maybe not that sad but it is still an emotional film. There’s progress with the characters and you feel which each and every one of them.

Now I like horror as a genre but I don’t like unoriginality. Which is why I’ve not seen that film where they move into an old house and it’s haunted because the previous person died a strange death, you know the one? Every other blockbusting horror in the past 16 years? Some can be fantastic of course but it’s hard to do well with and without cliches. Now zombies have a wide origin and a wide market, though South Korea hasn’t really adopted this reanimated monster theme quite as heavily as western media. But obviously they’re no strangers to horror. Sang-ho Yeon the director is winning at life, he did an animated film called Seoul Station of the same subject matter, got a bunch of money because he smashed it and went straight to this live action adaptation Train to Busan and smashed that too. I personally loved the direction of the zombies. I think partly because, like many, I’m used to The Walking Dead like, chill af, rotting zombies. These are not that. Once bitten you turn into a zombie within 30 seconds max. They do some crazy contortionist moves, crack some bones and go straight for the nearest human at quite a speed close to fast forward. As we see more of them we find out that they rely on their hearing heavily and can’t see in the dark. They only charge when people are visible and have no understanding on when to stop, because you know, they’re dead. And they are fresh! It’s a normal person with cloudy eyes and some dark veins but otherwise, alive. There’s blood of course but not particularly violent. With the lack of guns there’s no open wounds so no real gore. And because of these elements we get some fantastic scenes. I don’t know if you were a fan of World War Z, I found it forgettable, but Train to Busan does really well in using huge masses of zombies. There’s a few times where you realise the sheer amount of people involved and the speed in which they move and don’t stop moving is terrifying. You really believe how crazy their urge is to eat live humans. It creates absolutely fascinating visuals and I found myself grinning ear to ear through these moments.

Cinematography was good but not distracting, handheld when necessary, but not to replace the action. Kept you claustrophobic in the carriages and uneasy on the wide shots. As I mentioned before, no overt violence, so fresh blood smeared on windows and clothes, though you take notice they don’t steal from the frame. Lot’s of uniform, black and white splashed with the red, the usual greys of a train and it’s station. Paired with the score it was an all round great film on a technical basis. The music was wonderful, partnered well with each scene, definitely got your pulse up and accented the perfect parts of risky scenes. A particular song sung in the film and it’s meaning over silence speaks volumes.

With most monster films there’s usually an underlying message involved. In Train to Busan the whole thing was a debate on morals. Good vs evil, do you help your fellow man or put yourself first, should you make a sacrifice or deal with potentially worse consequences. It’s introduced early on with our protagonist, Seok-woo, played by Yoo Gong, in his difficult decision to take time off work to transport his daughter, that’s seen as a sacrifice to him. In contrast, later on the train, his daughter gives up her seat to one of the older women, with no question. He tells her she doesn't always have to do whats good and she asks why? Her father struggles with the idea of sacrifice, especially with strangers, whereas with young Soo-an it comes so naturally. We follow this line of sacrifice as some characters accept it easier than others and find ourselves debating how much we would sacrifice for a stranger.

8/10 I liked so much of what this film is. The usual question of what you would do in a zombie apocalypse is asked in a much more urgent way, easily the best horror of 2016.

Logan (2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zggJx7TB1cc&t=211s

A Cure for Wellness (2017)

I remember watching the trailer for this film when it first came out and decided not to read or watch anything to do with it until I actually go and see. And thankfully I pretty much went in blind bar the synopsis and had no spoilers. A Cure for Wellness is based around Dane DeHaan’s character travelling to Switzerland to retrieve a follow wall street business man from a spa retreat. Unfortunate circumstances mean he’s struck not just trying to figure out how to find his colleague, but how to escape from the spa himself.

Now I like Dane DeHaan, I think he’s got an interesting face and a good career ahead of him. I liked him a lot in Chronicle (2012) and he’s done well since. He’s quite a serious chap isn’t he? Very intense little man. His characters always have a severity to them. In this he begins unlikable, though handles the weight of the cliched rude yet successful business man suited to older men well. His character Mr Lockhart doesn’t really have a great development or progression, he doesn’t really become a different person until pretty much the last 30 seconds of the film. Not due to DeHaan, who is very believable in his struggles and frustrations, and his eagerness to understand seems genuine. But more due to the amount of story. So we’ve got a few different subplots all weaving together. So on our way to try and retrieve his colleague, Pembrooke, our first subplot, we’re told a little about the history of the retreat and it’s relationship with the village. On this journey we also touch on Lockhart’s father, who we come back to further on in the movie. Then once there we meet a young woman named Hannah who is a special patient in this ‘Wellness Centre’. As the film goes on water is a big theme too, don’t make my mistake and watch the movie thirsty, damn. So we’ve got Pembrooke, history, daddy Lockhart, Hannah and water. Now it’s not that it’s overpowering but it’s that it’s kind of underpowering. We gather that they’re gonna be related but often they get treated as individual narratives. I get it, you don’t want to tell us the ending you want us to try and guess and be surprised. That’s all well and good but on occasion you kinda forget about the others, then when they come back up, you’re like, oh, oh yeah are we still meant to care about that? Oh Lockhart cares still so yeah I guess we should. The rest of the cast is good, well suited, Mia Goth playing Hannah was great, she’s got a list, albeit short, but a good list of interesting roles. Jason Isaacs was great, creepy and powerful, if you’re wondering why you recognise his sparkly blues it’s because he played Lucius Malfoy.

Let’s talk about the pretty pictures. So the cinematographer for this is Bojan Bazelli, now I wouldn’t personally say that he’s got a particular style of his own, he adapts to whats needed for the picture. Examples of his work go from The Ring (2002) to Hairspray (2007) so I was open minded on what was matching the director Gore Verbinksi, who also directed The Ring. The brief showing of the office world is as expected with dull muted colours, but once with get to the Swiss Alps and the wellness centre some colours get sparingly included. It’s a gorgeous place to shot and the old architecture is beautiful, it finds its way onto the screen as would a Grimm’s fairy tale. With the aforementioned theme of water we get a lot of blues and greys along with the medical whites. The opening monologue to the film discusses how humans are the only creatures capable of self reflection so that does become a motif, in water, glass and of course mirrors. Another frequent visual is explicit framing, doors, windows archways, you name it and DeHaan stood in the middle of it. I also really enjoyed the sound, Benjamin Wallfisch has a wide selection of films under his belt, many of which have emotive sound and music. Having Lockhart use a crutch for a majority of the film is almost reminiscent to Rear Window in having the protagonist be physically bound by something, it adds danger. And to be perfectly honest with out that I doubt the film would have the same sense of suspense.

One thing I really want to discuss is the certificate of the film. Before literally being at the counter buying the tickets I did not know this was going to be an 18, but it was. Why? I don’t know. Maybe I’m a harden adult and didn’t think there was much that counts as higher than a 15. Granted it’s probably the collection of things. I won’t reveal anything that is countered to the plot but there is a rather adult scene, which though uncomfortable, isn't explicit. There is nudity, but it’s a spa, so yeah there’s some naked people trotting around. Language, yes but not enough to notice. Violence, yes, though not a great deal. If you don’t like the dentist, you won’t like a scene in the film. If you are scared of water you’re gonna feel a bit claustrophobic in parts. If you aren’t a fan of eels or leeches, this film isn’t going to convince you otherwise. The small parts of which where special effects were used they were fantastic.

Overall a somewhat engaging film though slow pacing, if you’ve got 2 hours and are curious, go right ahead. 6/10. Didn’t have the confidence to be completely experimental but had interesting elements.    

John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

Retired? John Wick? Surely not?

He’s back, the ‘Boogeyman-Assasain’ is back. Wick intends to begin his quiet life in his beautiful house surrounded by nature, with his new pal… ‘Dog’ (original, nice one John) when this is quickly ruined by an Italian gangster who turns up at his door and forces him to tie up loose ends when he presents him with a gold marker. He is very briefly reluctant until his house gets torched, and he realises he must do as he’s told, should he want to live.

The film begins with 5 minutes of aggressive car sounds, a big fight, and a summary of what the last film was about by one of the first characters we see on screen. At this point you really do think, right okay, this is a John Wick film and the action is going to be immense, I’m excited.

Unfortunately, this is not completely the case throughout this film. Although the story itself seems to be a solid storyline upon reading it, when watching it, the importance behind it seems to get lost somewhere, and ends up just being ‘another action film’, and once he has completed the task he set out to do (very early on, I might add), you wonder what he’s going to get up to in the next 100 minutes. This story seemed to be – as expected for a second chapter, an extension on the first film, which, don’t get me wrong, is a beautiful way to tackle a sequel, however, this film was 2 hours 2 minutes and my god, in my opinion, those 122 minutes felt like days. I am not saying this film was all bad though, of course. We begin to get some new insights in Wick himself and the life he led before his final job in the last film, granted it’s not necessarily brand new information but additions and extensions to the world that been created. There’s a great scene just as he arrives in Rome which shows him preparing for his big job, his tailor, his weapons expert and his location intel all received gold coins and all welcome him with a high sense of respect and anticipation. It really solidifies just how big a deal John Wick is and far this universe expands.

The techniques used for this film mirrored those used in the first film significantly, such as the use of subtitles in different fonts to highlight certain phrases, and like it did in the first film, this worked well, and fitted with the film perfectly. Similarly, the soundtrack still fitted wonderfully, but however, in some parts I’m pretty sure they used exactly the same music, and the Killing Strangers intro seemed to still be thoroughly used during transition periods accompanying a long shot of the city or specific place we were going to next. Again, keeping the films very similar, though not so much a problem that it should be changed. It worked, it was fine.
The lighting used in this film, once again… (You guessed it) the same. John Wick was a very dark film, John Wick 2, well they just forgot about lighting all together in some parts, and suited these scenes well, however, certain scenes seemed to drag on for a little bit too long in this chapter, possibly making it feel a lot darker than it probably was.

The cast, is mostly the same in this film. I mean we had a couple of new appearances such as Ruby Rose, and Ricardo Scamarcio but overall, the ones that stood out for us – were the ones who we’ve seen before. I’m obviously going to stop off to mention the great fella that is – Keanu Reeves. Personally, he was the only thing about this film I cared about. I adore Keanu Reeves, and he is always an actor that plays his character and isn’t just Keanu Reeves in every production. I am upset to say, he just wasn’t given dialogue in this film. I can’t explain why they decided that this was the best idea, but they decided it! When Keanu did have dialogue they gave him corny, predictable John Wick come backs that we have all heard before, that just didn’t benefit the film or the story in any way, and you know what… he might as well have said nothing because he is just so impressive, that he just didn’t need a good script to assist his acting. The fight scenes he was involved in were believable, and incredible, and you would begin to fear, not only this character but the person portraying him. He could make you believe that John Wick was real. Although some of the scenes were long, they were well planned out and there should certainly be some kind of award available for whoever choreographed these (there probably is, please excuse my ignorance)
Anyway, 11/10, Keanu.

Ruby Rose’s character… one word for her, why? Why did they feel it was necessary to get another completely unnecessary female character involved? She was the kind of character that required an eye-roll whenever they came on, and this eye rolling doubles in two separate scenes such as, when she one – randomly groped Keanu Reeves, to the point of even his face presented some concern. Then secondly, when she was reaching to get her gun, and we got a sweet little close up shot of her ass. The reaction in my head was ‘great, here we go’.  Scenes that just weren’t needed.
In order to emphasise further how truly, truly pointless she was, I have to explain that she did not speak. She didn’t say a single word throughout. This character spoke with sign language, yet understood John when he spoke to her, and grunted during a fight scene. Can someone please explain the no speaking here?
Despite the eye rolling though, I must admit, it was yet again great to see a male vs. female fight, this scene was admittedly not as good as the similar fight that was had in John Wick, but it was entertaining all the same.

John Wick: Chapter 2 was not what I expected, but at the same time, seriously was. I went into it believing they would reproduce the first one, but asking myself surely they won’t?! They did, and for that reason, I was not impressed.
Athena is much more generous than me, giving it a 5.5/10, for me I don't even want to give it a 5.

4.5/10. Sorry John Wick: Chapter 2, you didn’t impress.

Hidden Figures (2017)

So we've recently signed up to be a part of Show Film First, a website which offers free cinema tickets to previews of upcoming shows. We're often going to midnight releases so we thought why not get some previews in before those too. As luck had it one of the first opportunities we had was to see one of the nine Best Picture nominations Hidden Figures.

The story of three African American women facing diversity as mathematicians in the early years of NASA. It sounds like something that's meant to be a film doesn't it? Like many I wonder why I hadn't heard of these women and their story before. I remember once reading online that there was a woman that worked at NASA that was so smart that when they first started using computers they had her double check the calculations. As one the the astronauts in the film says, 'it's hard to trust the workings of something you can't look in the eye.' Yet after hearing of this potentially fictional woman I was never told that she was African American. Being black in America is a tiring as it is, let alone in the 60's. Then on top of that, being a woman in a male dominated environment? Frankly it sounds exhausting. The film accents prejudice with a somewhat calculated restraint. Everyone watching the film is aware of the history, we're all aware of stereotypes and assumptions of the time. The audience is smart enough to know that it doesn't need to show brutal or explicit offence to get the message across that racism is bad. Yes racism is bad, but worse, racism at the time was the norm. The repeated incidents of disrespect and subtle degradation become standard. I found this a great way to wear the audience down. As when the straw finally broke the camel's back you got it. The emotionally charged scenes and outbursts felt justified. It felt like we all got there together. You understood and agreed with all three women. The racial tension is a strong backbone for the film and is not missed but it is not the whole story. The story is about the women.

My favourite character, and I find it odd saying character when it's a real life woman, but my favourite character is played by Taraji P Henson. Katherine G. Johnson is the woman in question that was the 'computer', an intelligent mathematician that joins the team responsible for America's first manned space flight Project Mercury. It is debatable that she has the most development over the course of the film, across all bets. Her career, her family life and her self confidence all improve. Granted at times it felt her love life appeared to advance a little quick and easy. But hey, the real Mr and Mrs Johnson have been married over 50 years so what do I know. With three powerful ladies it's hard to give all three equal character backstories. Which is why I couldn't tell you much about Octavia Spencer's character outside of work. Though Spencer's portrayal of Dorothy Vaughan earned her a best supporting actress Oscar nomination, because of course it did. To be honest there's not much to say about Spencer, if you've seen her in anything then you know what she's like. Her gives characters natural nuances that make you believe they existed before we meet them. Her performance in The Help (2011) was the same. Also she was arguably just as great in a few episodes of Ugly Betty if any of you remember that. She gives Mrs Vaughan a believably permanence. The film would not have the right weight without her.

The whole cast is stellar, it's been nominated for Best Film for a reason. Janelle Monae has done well starring in this as well as another Best Picture contender, Moonlight.  Her character in Hidden Figures, Mary Jackson, embodies progress. She became NASA's first black female engineer. Can you imagine having something you've done be recorded as the first time it's ever happened. Being the first. That's the message she gives, and it resonates. We also get a glimpse into family life with her husband and children, though briefly and granted somewhat unnecessary to the narrative, it does round out how the world is at the time outside of NASA. Now, Monae is a pleasure to watch (partly because of her crazy good skin, what is her regime!?) but because she'd proved that on top of to her own music career and record label she can act (in addition to performing on the soundtrack).

The soundtrack as you might have assumed is great, everything Pharrell Williams touches kinda turns to gold. Yes, some of his songs are overplayed, but that's partly due to their popularity, and you can't always argue with that. The man knows what he's doing, he produced the film, the soundtrack, and was involved with the score... And performed as well... And slayed.

All aspects of sound were made for this film. Really made for it. It all comes together completely as an equal part, everything fits. The music even goes with the cinematography, which was good though I think benefited from the period that it's in. The whole 60's look, the hair, the make up, the home, they all have this warmth to them that contrast the cold greys and blues of the NASA buildings. Clearly no mistake, but that definitely gave Mandy Walker, the director of photography, a lot to work with, and she did well. It definitely did not feel like a film that was over two hours, it handled itself well, and the pacing of the film is great, even though it began to slow towards the final scenes. However, this partly is due to there being no real climax to the film, just some good resolutions. It's a satisfying ending and gives some information and insight to the lives of the women after the story of the film. And I am a sucker for a freeze frame and 'this is where they are now'. So that was an extra point for me.

A happy 7/10. Great cast great story, and space is cool. Would not buy it on Blu ray but would recommend the soundtrack.

CINEMATES - A