Marjorie Prime (dir. Michael Almereyda)

Adapted from theatre to screen Marjorie Prime is the story of a near future in which our loved ones can remain with us via the wonder of artificial intelligence.

Marjorie’s memory is fading, dementia is taking hold but her family have given her a ‘Prime’ that takes the form of her husband Walter (Jon Hamm). They sit together, converse, reflect and remember days gone by in order to maintain some sense of normality for her.

This is the wonder of technology, the potential of Artificial Intelligence, there is no threat here, no growing evil and yet in the background her daughter Tess (Geena Davis) and son in law Jon (Tim Robbins) debate the benefits and potential negatives of this new found tech.

Is Marjorie over reliant on Walter?

Is this technology a comfort or is it a crutch?

Jon sees the benefits and sits at night with Walter helping him learn more about Marjorie, providing him with memories and facts about the real Walter in order to help Marjorie. He also uses Walter as a quasi-counsellor helping expel his stresses, feelings about life and the inevitable path they are on as Marjorie continues to weaken and the memories continue to fade.

There are so many films that raise concerns around artificial intelligence, the dangers, the pitfalls. Majorie Prime highlights the pros and the cons and leaves it to the viewer to decide which side they choose, reach their own decisions and extol the virtues as they see fit. It may feel small and indie as small, but the questions asked make Marjorie Prime a great, challenging watch.

Marjorie Prime is a film that may have passed you by, a small cinematic release and very little publicity make a film with such a strong cast and relevant subject area retain a sense of small indie project. It deserves much more recognition for tackling issues that are sadly all too prevalent and is definitely worth seeking out!

Marjorie Prime is available via the NOW TV movie pass.

Bad Times at the El Royale (dir. Drew Goddard)

Seven strangers, each with their own secrets, pasts and desires meet at a run-down hotel in Lake Tahoe on the Nevada/California borderline. Over the course of a fateful night, they all get one last shot at redemption before everything goes wrong.

Isolated locations and a set of strangers randomly concurring always breeds chaos, The Hateful Eight, Identity etc all have their isolation. Metaphorical weather incidents set the stage, causes prolonged stays and the audience simply sits back and awaits the oncoming storm. So in many ways Bad Times at the El Royale provides nothing new, we’ve seen this formula before. Creepy motels, a solitary, mildly creepy concierge shocked to suddenly find himself swamped with custom. A priest (Jeff Bridges), a salesman (Jon Hamm), lounge singer (Cynthia Erivo) and hippy (Dakota Johnson) meander into a hotel lobby and the mechanism begins to click into motion.

Bad Times at the El Royale did however feel fresh, perhaps it was the element of espionage, the unconfirmed hotel ownership, the fluctuating crosses and double crosses that provided moments of genuine shock in the room or perhaps because I’ve felt so underserved by recent cinema trips that I found myself more and more enraptured by this film.

By the time Chris Hemsworth and his sopping wet, hypnotic torso (pictured above) traversed the hotel car park I had become so enamoured with the clever arrangement of story, interesting characters, toe tapping Motown inflected soundtrack and vaguely noir aesthetic that the appearance of Hemsworth as a odd religious cult leader only served to further extend my joy.

While I may wax lyrical and repeat agin my enjoyment of this film, I must also confess that the final act is long and unnecessarily so in places. Certainly, the ends could have been tied up a little quicker and with more ease, but without this I may not have been granted the sight of a priestly Jeff Bridges offering grace, forgiveness and absolution and for that I will forgive many a cinematic sin.

Bad Times at the El Royale is on general release from 12th October.

Smallfoot (dir. Karey Kirkpatrick, Jason Reisig)

Migo (Channing Tatum) is a friendly Yeti whose world gets turned upside down when he discovers something that he didn't know existed - a human. He soon faces banishment from his snowy home when the rest of the villagers refuse to believe his fantastic tale. Hoping to prove them wrong, Migo embarks on an epic journey to find the mysterious creature that can put him back in good graces with his simple community and finds Percy (James Corden) a nature reporter (in the mould of Steve Irwin) whose ratings are on a downward spiral and sees the potential hit rate that Migo could get him.

Family films area tricky business, children can easily lose interest if there is not story to grab them, no characters to grow affection for and non-fat gags to make the giggle. Thankfully Smallfoot has all of this and some tunes too. The family preview I attended had laughter in spades as everyone present found lots of little gags to appreciate and some physical slapstick to keep the humour rate at a childish enough level to even make this old grump chuckle on more than occasion.

Smallfoot attempts sing along moments to try and keep the audience engaged, particularly when plot points become a little too uninteresting for normal dialogue in an attempt to get our toes tapping, but sadly none of these quite hit the mark. Certainly not in comparison to other family favourites such as Trolls where those tunes still occasionally worm their way back into our internal jukeboxes.

The purpose of Smallfoot is to preach the benefits of reaching out those not like its. Those we have been told are monsters because they are different, because we have misunderstood them, because they don’t look or act like we do. A great message for young and old but there were points when this was being hammered home rather than suggested which can often be more effective.

There are also lessons in how societies are created, laws applied or perhaps more accurately even the use of religion to provide a truth that constrains rather than frees those within the sphere of influence. For Migo when the story he has been told for so longer no longer lines up with his experience he experiences what many refer to (and have experienced) as deconstruction which sends him on a journey to a deeper, more resonating truth and not just out of his own selfishness but because he wants everyone he knows to experience the truth as he has so that their world is changed for the better. That’s right parents I’m claiming Smallfoot to be one of the best animated family examples of the deconstructive experience!

For a film set in such cold surroundings there is a lot of warmth and a lot of heart in Smallfoot, there is plenty to enjoy and there is definitely the potential for conversations to be had on car journeys home from the cinema around its themes. The true test is yet to come however, will its intended audience want to revisit and sadly I have my doubts.

Smallfoot is released in cinemas on 12 October .

Cocote (dir. Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias )

A crime fable set in the Dominican Republic, Cocote follows Alberto, akin-hearted gardener returning home to attend his father’s funeral. When he discovers that a powerful local figure is responsible for his father’s death, Alberto realises that he has been called home not for a funeral but to fulfil his family’s desire for revenge. This is unthinkable to Alberto, a practicing Evangelical Christian and goes against his strongly held beliefs, however as pressure mounts from all sides, including within he sees little way out.

Cocote is a Dominican slang term for the soon to be broken neck of an animal, referring in part to the manner in which Alberto’s father was killed and also the violence to come. This violence hangs around in the film like an unwelcome spirit, at times feeling as if it has control of the camera. As the camera pans to take in the room there is a sense that it is searching for something, a reason to break out, asap through which the built up frustration and pain can erupt.

The film itself is beautifully shot, has a broken narrative, flits between colour palettes and aspect ratios as if to highlight the split second transitions and decisions swirling in Alberto’s mind. HE is troubled, challenged and uneasy about his family’s lust for revenge. Can he hold his beliefs and yet satisfy his family’s desires? Can God forgive him for what he has been called home to do? His family are sceptical of his faith, seeing it as a means to back out of honour traditions that hold his community together. He is screamed at for his inaction which his family see as hypocrisy given God’s own violent past.

Cocote is a film that is a difficult watch at times, the changes in ratio, colour palette etc can be jarring and for many may prove them a little distracting. I however, found the film to be a mesmeric, hypnotic exploration of faith, tradition and honour. Can we ever really escape from the traditions and history of our family, our communities and their influence or will they forever hold sway over our choices?

The film has been entered into the Oscar race for Best Foreign Language Film and while it may be early to predict the nominees or the eventual winner, I will not be surprised if the originality and hypnotic beauty of Cocote brings greater recognition in the future.

Cocote is currently available on MUBI. Sign up and get a 7 day free trial!

BlacKkKlansman (dir. Spike Lee)

Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is an anomaly, the first in his field and a man with one incredible story to tell. 

The first African-American police officer from Colorado and the first African-American police officer to successfully infiltrate the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with the help of a white officer surrogate (Adam Driver). Ron finds his infiltration brings a meteoric rise to head of the local branch and unprecedented access to the grand high wizard David Duke (Topher Grace).

The story sounds farcical, an urban myth or perhaps complete fallacy but this is a true story through which Spike Lee takes aim not only at the past, the present and the future of America.

The trailer may show the humour of the film but this is a very clever marketing strategy. A strategy to entice and swerve the potential viewer into a place of comfort and purchasing a ticket. Once inside however the mood quickly changes. There is humour to be found in the film, it's hard not to laugh at Ron using his 'white voice' on the phone or laugh along with him and his colleagues corpsing as the Klan's Grand Wizard responds with enthusiasm and praise for Ron's derogatory slurs on the African-American community.  We are all in on the joke at this point but things very quickly change. This is not a comedy, we are not in our seats to laugh our troubles away, with great ease and precision Lee takes the viewer into the political, into the horror and into the all to current reality of society's flaws.

There is a lot of run time dedicated to white hate speech, this is deeply uncomfortable and unsettling. A sequence with the members gathered watching Birth of a Nation, whooping and cheering their brethren on as if watching some form of sport made me squirm more than once in my chair. Stallworth listening in to conversation on a shooting range and then being confronted with the targets deep in the woods also chilled me. The prevalence of this type of speech and these ideas and actions is done with intention, you are to ask how and why this can tolerated not only in the movie itself but in the fresh air outside of your multiplex experience.

There has been criticism of the film in some quarters, most notably Boots Riley regarding the depiction of the police force in the film. Some se them as being too on the side of right in the film. However to me the film clearly shows that not police are well intentioned. Stallworth deals with racism from his own colleagues as well as scenes depicting some  of their actions in the streets bring not a full story perhaps but an attempt to balance out both sides of the coin. 

The final scenes of the film bring a chilling end to the story in Stallworth's case quickly cutting to scenes events in Charlottesville just over a year ago.  Those final scenes are so chilling and impactful as they speak to something we all knew before the film started. The fight against hatred has been a long one, there have been many victories of varying ins scale along the way, but there is still much to be done. 

BlacKkKlansman (Cert. 15) is in cinemas now.