To all the Eyre’s I’ve loved before
- Jane Eyre (2011): I might be more of a Jane Austen fan than of the Brontë sisters – due to the wit and lightness of the former’s stories. Yet, Jane Eyre, as embittered as it is in its tale of forlorn love, class struggles and fem-lib, caught my liking. The sombre tone might feel heavy at times, especially pushing the two hour mark. It’s the impressions that Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska make which ease the burden and make Jane Eyre a captivating watching. 7/10
What’s wrong about standing toe to toe, saying ‘I am’ ?
- Creed II (2018): I’m generally taken with movies about father-son relationships and Creed surprises in this regard. It’s a slight evolution from Rocky 4, with the Russian (Romanian) machine springing emotional leaks at unexpected moments. Other than that, there are few unexpected turns in this second go at the Creed spin-off, which hits all its marks with satisfactory efficiency. If anything, the sense of how much Stallone has aged – and we alongside him – is my biggest takeaway from the movie. Also, it dearly reminded me of one of the best College Humor parodies ever – enjoy. 7/10
The one they’ll jump on when I’m asked to host the Oscars
- Widows (2018): What a thoroughly disappointing flick. Just one of those heist movies employing the gender reversal card, a movie that has the pretense of providing political commentary on top of it all. Needless to say, almost all male characters are profoundly rotten, whereas the widows are true heroins of self-empowerment. Sure, the set pieces were fine, the acting was fine, but I failed to get behind this – not so much because my male ego felt injured, but because the movie wants to be more than it is, which is a capital sin in my book. 5/10
A flurry of old and new cult feelings
- Apostle (2018): Few movies do sound and atmosphere as well as Apostle does. Starring the ever-likable Dan Stevens, this story of a man going off to a cult-island to recover his kidnapped sister has a good set-up, with Michael Sheen providing an adequately conflicted antagonist. There’s just a dab of the supernatural in this, which makes it more bearable to me, but ultimately the movie is about cults and power. Unfortunately, it falters in the second half due to a ‘run for the hills’ mentality in finding closure. Still, a good watch for the initiated. 6/10
If you like your politics after a lobotomy
- A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding (2018): If the first one wasn’t enough for you, then Netflix knows. It’s why it put out a sequel to last year’s Prince, which takes on some bold, new cliches that it somehow missed out on in the original. Thankfully, the cast is still agreeable and the shots of Peles castle feature just as much, which makes the movie less obnoxious than it might otherwise have been. 4/10
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