Dan Says its Alright

 Given the current climate it's no surprise that cult of personality movies are coming thick and fast. Opus isn't one of the best but there is enough of interest to worth a glance if black comedy and celebrity parody are your bag.  Ayo Edebiri plays young music journalist Ariel, desperate to write something meaningful which seams a long way away thanks to her "old fashioned" editor (Murray Bartlett), who treats her as a glorified note taker while giving all the juicy assignments to the lads. An opportunity presents itself when reclusive music genius Alfred Morreti (John Malkovich) surfaces after thirty years and she is one of the select few people invited to his compound for a weekend celebration and exclusive first listen. On the downside, her editor is also invited ("obviously I'll write the piece") and on arrival there is the small matter of Morreti clearly being involved in a cult. There are some other guests; a radio DJ, a paparazzi and Juliet Lew...

The title character of Mickey 17 is the 17th iteration of Mickey Barnes, a failed entrepreneur played by Robert Pattinson who has fled Earth (and a particularly unpleasant loan shark) by signing up to be an "expendable" on a voyage to colonise a new planet. This means he takes on all the most dangerous jobs and simply has his personality and memories uploaded to a newly printed body upon his inevitable death. By the time we meet him, lying at the bottom of a frozen ravine waiting to die, the four year space journey is over and and the ship's inhabitance are trying to get a foothold on the frozen hellscape of planet Niflheim. The first portion of the film sees Mickey recount the events that led to him being in such a situation, fleeing Earth after the collapse of his and dubious best friend Steven Yuen's macaron business, beeing manipulated into becoming an expendable, his relationship with security officer Nasha (Naomi Ackie) and the deaths of many of the proceeding ...

The Last Showgirl opens with Pamela Anderson's Shelly Gardner standing awkward and alone on stage, lying about her age as she attempts a dance audition for the first time in decades. We then cut to the hustle and bustle of the dressing room of "The Razzle Dazzle", the Vegas show Shelly has been a part of for thirty years. Full of warmth and camaraderie, the life she is used to presents a stark contrast to the future she is facing. Outdated and playing to empty seats, the Razzle Dazzle is set to close in two weeks, prompting Shelly to contemplate life without the thing she has based her entire existence around. This is an understated and sombre character study, presenting a far less glamorous view of Sin City than we are used to seeing. The glory days of the Vegas showgirl have long passed and despite her being one of the scenes biggest stars, have left Shelly with precious little to show for her life beyond glorious memories. Here home is modest to say the least and estr...

  By the time the credits roll you might be wondering if the title Captain America : Brave New World is ironic. This may be the MCU's big return after over a year on hiatus (I don't care about technicalities, Deadpool and Wolverine is a Fox movie through and through) but there is precious little new on display here and it would be a Reed Richards level stretch to describe a would be political thriller that is so afraid of politics as brave. On the one hand, Marvel are in a bit of a bind. Pillared for continuously dishing up more of the same but when they do try something a little fresh, a la The Eternals, long time fans shy away from it. Still, even in creative paralysis, such an experienced studio should be able to produce a higher quality product than this.  The Captain America of the title is of course no longer Steve Rogers. The shield has passed to his wingman Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), formerly know as Falcon. He has not been dosed with the "Super Serum" of h...

  The tagline for The Monkey is, "Everybody Dies, And That's Fucked Up". Seldom has a slogan summed up a film so succinctly. While director Osgood Perkins may have spent his career to date crafting slow burn phycological horrors he turns the volume up to eleven this time round with a gonzo and completely over the top, abyssal black, comedy featuring flying limbs and a ledger filling bodycount. Based very loosely on the Stephen King short story of the same name, the titular simian is an old wind up toy that plays a drum. Wind it at your peril however as every time the drum strikes, someone dies, usually in an excessively gruesome way. There is no influencing who it decides to take and no destroying it. The film opens with a father desperately trying to get rid of the unwanted toy and then switches to his twin sons, Hal and his placenta hogging bully of a "big" brother Bill. We spend a little time with them as youths in 1999, as the monkey reeks havoc on their ch...

  You would be forgiven for thinking Heart Eyes is a simple holiday themed slasher movie riding the coattails of 2023's Thanksgiving. While it takes place on Valentine's Day and features a killer dispatching people with a cupid themed arsenal of weapons, that is only half the story. What Heart Eyes really is, is a full on rom com with a slasher slapped over the top of it. How does that work? Thanks to a heightened comic tone and some sharp writing, pretty bloody well. Olivia Holt plays Ally, a love cynic who stalks her ex online and whose bitterness has seeped into her work, endangering her job as a marketing agent for a jewellery company. She has a meet cute in a coffee shop with Mason Gooding's Jay, only to later find out he has been hired by her company to fix her campaign and may be a threat to her position. True love sceptic forced to work with a hot new guy (who happens to be a hopeless romantic) under tense circumstances is a classic rom com set up and there is even...