Movies of the Week #1 #2 (2025)

Better Man (2024): Even as a die-hard Robbie Williams fan, I had my doubts going into this one. The choice to have a CGI chimpanzee to play RW seemed frivolous at best and ludicrous at worst. Beyond the artistic choice, I simply couldn’t (and can’t) understand the commercial one, because how is a biopic costing over 100 million USD to draw a mainstream crowd if it doesn’t have the man himself (or a humanoid semblance of him) on the poster? Well, I am delighted to have had my doubts squashed by what turned out to be a boisterous movie, true to the eccentricities of the man himself, and unwavering in its conviction to make something work that nobody would (theoretically) touch on paper. A couple of excellent, luminous musical numbers balance the dark undercurrents that defined RW’s life in the 90s and early 00s, and while the finale is too kind for my liking to one of the borderline antagonists (the man’s father), I think Better Man managed to be a memorable biopic. And that’s in spite of the plot staying close to the “struggling artist’s” origin template. 8

Little Sister (2016): I wasn’t sure what to expect of this, after Zach Clark’s White Reindeer (2013). This wasn’t as existential, rather a straightforward critique of the Bush wars with spots of quirk. It follows a brother-sister couple, with the brother returned from war with severe physical trauma, and the sister contemplating whether becoming a nun is indeed her path in life. The movie does well to frame their relationship through the lens of who they used to be growing up, in a sombre and effective fashion. I thought it found its truth and portrayed a complex situation with care and some humor. 7

Scare Me (2020): I wanted to get back into a cabin-themed scary movie and this was the first that came to mind. I still maintain it’s an enjoyable, campy story, which plays with the tropes and comes away with enough originality to stand out. What isn’t quite as inspired is its ending (I stand by it) as well as its pacing. It would run smoother at a shorter runtime, cropping from the slow and not terribly engaging opening story. 7

George A. Romero’s Resident Evil (2025): As a fan of Resident Evil, zombies and Romero, this documentary took me by surprise. I was well aware of the near mythological tales of what-could-have-been Romero’s Resident Evil and even read his script for it back in the day. Brandon Salisbury’s take on the matter is a scattered one, diluted with narration and script read outs, but not without moments of charm and intrigue. It definitely tells a story, covering a lot of ground on both the RE franchise and Romero’s legacy. If anything, I think that it’s not very much about what the title says it’s about, with the topic itself proving less interesting than the homage to Romero – but with very little Romero in it. A focused approach would have helped the movie stand out, rather than a middle of the road attempt ailed by pacing issues. Full review here. 6

Perfect Sense (2011): In the era of Blindness (2008) and Children of Men (2006), an era of mysterious epidemics making mankind question its fundamental concepts of life, Perfect Sense presents the case of a gradual loss of all our senses. Directed by David Mackenzie and starring Eva Green and Ewan McGregor, I felt that while it surpasses the disastrous adaptation of Blindness, it doesn’t do enough with its premise. It suffers in tone and by being too wide-sweeping, rather than focused, with nothing quite as bad as montages of people around the world (i.e. Africa) as a diversity token. That said, there are moments when the movie works well, with sensory deprivation recreating what the characters are going through, though I don’t think it translates emotionally. 6