Many ambitious movies opening this week - all not ending up that impressive. Read on.......
FILM REVIEWS:
DELICIOUS (Germany 2025) **
Written and Directed by Nele Mueller-Stöfen
DELICIOUS (Germany 2025) **
Directed by Nele Mueller-Stöfen
A German family's idyllic summer at their French villa in Provence (film shot in Avignon, according to the credits) unravels after they accidentally hit a young woman working at a tourist hotel, on a country road and take her in. They take her in for fear of her going to the cops creating a hassle. The wife thinks he can fix this. Or can she? Initially appearing helpful, each family member soon reveals their own hidden motives, seeking something different from the woman. This mistake leads to unforeseen consequences that ultimately transform the entire family's lives.
This is not the first film in which a stranger totally destroys a family. One that comes to mind is one from Chile where a maid has a secret with each family member and uses it for greed. Another is Harold Pinter’s SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, in which a young and gorgeous Michael York enters and aristocratic German family and has sex with each family member from the mother played by Angela Lansbury to the daughter and homosexual son.
The film plays like a mystery banking on the uneasiness of the audience, The tactic works in which audience anticipation (like a Hitchcock movie) is always at its height. Quite different form the Chilean maid and SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, this film unfortunately falters at the end when the twist in the plot turns it from reality family check to a modern gothic horror piece.
At best the film plays the poor and the rich against each other, taking the side of the rich though the poor also gets their say, but in a weird manner.
DELICIOUS opens for streaming on Netflix on Friday, March 7th.
Trailer:
(full review to be posted weekend)
MICKEY 17 (USA/South Korea 2025) ***
Directed by Boon Joon-Ho
The new Bong Joon-Ho movie after his much-celebrated Academy Award multiple winner PARASITE is available to watch in IMAX. It is touted as a futuristic $118 million blockbuster and is called MICKEY 17. But because of its premise, it could also be called MICKEY 18 or MICKEY BARNES.
Wanting to get off Earth, the financially destitute Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) signs up to be an "expendable", a disposable clone worker, on the human colony Nilfheim. As an expendable, Mickey undertakes several dangerous assignments he is not expected to survive, with a new body being regenerated each time he dies. During one such assignment, one of his clones, "Mickey 17", is incorrectly assumed dead and prematurely replaced. Mickey 17 finds his way back to the colony and meets his replacement, known as Mickey 18. Under the colony's rules, only one iteration of an expendable may exist at one time, and if Mickey 17 is discovered, both he and Mickey 18 will be destroyed. Both the previous and current versions of Mickey Barnes have to grapple with the nature of being expendables and fight back against the oppressive leaders governing the colony.
Pattinson steals the show exhibiting a wide range of acting variations especially displaying different traits for MICKY 17 and MICKEY 18 as both human prints exist side to side and also fight each other. Pattinson displays manic behaviour as well as rational ones proving himself to be quite the versatile actor. Mark Ruffalo also deserves mention. He plays Kenneth Marshall, an egomaniacal politician with sinister designs for Nilfheim. He clearly pokes fun at President Trump showing his character and Trump’s as a ridiculous madman capable of much danger if left unchecked.
Three under-written roles include Naomi Ackie as Nasha Barridge, a security agent and Mickey's love interest and the girlfriend of one of his previous clones, Steven Yeun as Timo, a pilot and Mickey's childhood friend and the amazing Toni Collette as Ylfa, Marshall's devious and controlling wife.
Being a South Korean co-production, a lot of the extras are played by Koreans, more than one expects to see in a Hollywood movie.
But Bong’s film is a poorly written narrative mess with humans, creepies and megalomaniacs interacting on Earth and on another planet. Given a huge over $100 million budget, Bong goes as crazy as his character Mickey Barnes in the adventure of one or several lifetimes. Despite the film’s flaws and running time of over two hours, the first two thirds are an incurable compelling watch, flaws aside. The film begins to bog down a little in its last third, Bong is unable to maintain his over-the-top craziness. It is a classic case of fatigue and too much of a good thing.
The film’s special effects and cinematography are nothing short of stunning, a given must these days for Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters. In the beginning few months of every year when cinema is in the doldrums, MICKEY 17 should lift box-office returns for 2025. MICKEY 17 opens in theatres on March 7th. Being a sci-fi futuristic epic, the film warrants being seen in the IMAX format.
Trailer:
NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE (Canada/France/Belgium 2024) **
Directed by Ricardo Curtis and Rodrigo Perez-Castro
The January and February months of every year is the lull for the new movies opening in theatres. The same can be said for animated features and the new one, an international co-production is infantile and unfortunately falls into this category. NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE (originally titled Night of the Zombies) is a 2024 animated comedy horror film directed by storyboard artists Ricardo Curtis and Rodrigo Perez-Castro, written by James Kee and producer Steven Hoban, and inspired by a concept by Clive Barker. The film follows a group of animal survivors in a zoo where a meteor virus turns various zoo creatures into slobbering mutant zombies.
A meteor containing a mysterious space virus crashes into Colepepper Zoo turning the animals into vicious gummi-like zombie mutants. A young wolf named Gracie (it takes the film 15 minutes before disclosing that the cartoon protagonist is wolf0 teams up with a gruff mountain lion named Dan to find a cure, while leading a rag-tag group of survivors to stop the leader of the zombies, Bunny Zero, from taking over the world.
Though it can be argued that this feature is aimed at kids, many animated features have included (is it that difficult?) to include adults to be entertained. NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE is definitely a bore for the adults. Myself I did not utter a laugh-out-loud even once. The antics of the characters are infantile, silly, and pointless and the inter-communication lacks any imagination either. The entire hour and a half already feels too long. Apart from the satisfactory animation, there is nothing much this film has to offer.
NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCAYPSE premiered October 6, 2024, at the 57th Sitges Film Festival, Rest of the world: January 29, 2025 (France) and March 7, 2025 (United States and Canada)
Trailer:
THE RULE OF JENNY PEN (New Zealand 2024) ****
Directed by James Ashcroft
Opening Friday in theatres , and coming soon on the prime horror network for anything frightening comes a surprisingly must-see horror shocker from way down under New Zealand that could be destined to be a cult classic. Two ageing stars Oscar Winner Geoffrey Rush from SHINE and John Lithgow (last seen in CONCLAVE) play two ageing males in a nursing home at loggerheads (to put it mildly, since there is a fight to the death at the end).
Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy (Lithgow) who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called "The Rule of Jenny Pen” while wielding his dementia doll as an instrument of cruelty. What begins as childish torment quickly escalates into far more sinister and disturbing incidents. When Mortensen's pleas to the staff go unanswered, he takes it upon himself to put an end to Crealy's reign of terror.
Rush plays a toxic resident who has suffered a stroke while pronouncing a sentence in a case involving child abuse and murder. He is only too angry to find himself with a roommate, demanding angrily from the staff that he has applied for a private single. Obviously this man did not read the fine print. He is unlikable despite doing a good job as a judge. It is good to see two great stars face off, as in the Bette Davis/Joan Crawford cult classic WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? Lithgow, an American has a problem with his New Zealand accent and it would best to have given an excuse in the script for the character to be American. Still, he is good to watch. These are two characters. toxic as poison, who deserve each other.
The reason the film is called THE RULE OF JEENY PEN is not revealed and is a mystery even up to the film’s halfway mark. The script teases. Just like the start of the movie when the camera is on the faces of the judge. the accused killer and a crying mother. At this point, the audience wonders what the rest of the film will be about. It turns out to be the judge, who had just condemned the killer and the mother who had done nothing but let the tragic event happen. Now the judge himself is faced with the identical situation in which he is stuck with a stroke in a wheelchair able to do early anything while an abuser does havoc in the nursing home.
The less known about the film the better, as there are surprises around every corner. The director is always several steps ahead of the story. The best praise can be seen below - a quote from the horror master himself.
"One of the best movies I've seen this year."
- Stephen King
IFC FILMS’ THE RULE OF JENNY PEN opens Friday and should be on every horror fan’s watch list.
SEVEN VEILS (Canada 2023) **
Directed by Atom Egoyan
After years away, theatre director Jeanine (Academy Award® nominee Amanda Seyfried) re-enters the opera world to stage her former mentor’s most famous work. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, Jeanine allows her repressed trauma to colour the present as her personal and professional lives begin to unravel.
The story of Salome is an old story and a lot needs to be known about Salome and the title SEVEN VEILS before venturing to watch this complex, messy but nevertheless intriguing Atom Egoyan movie.
Simply from the Bible’s Gospel according to St. Mark: But an opportunity came when King Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias's daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you." And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom." And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." The king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.
In the film SEVEN VEILS (that is the name given to the dance given by Salome to King Herod), the story is told via opera. The film stars Amanda Seyfried as Jeanine, a theatre director who is dealing with repressed trauma as she prepares to mount a production of the opera Salome. She was working with Charles when he passed on, passing the baton to her to continue the production. “I will make small but meaningful changes,” she says. It also becomes known that Jeanine has had an affair with Charles. Jeanine also suffers trauma from abuse as a child. To add fuel to the fire, the German opera singer sexually abuses the prop artist.
Director Egoyan fumbles through all the events with mass editing, flashbacks and messy storytelling. With too many stakes at hand, not every one of the issues is solved satisfactorily. One should give Egoyan credit for doing opera, tying in problems with staging it, and tying in current problems with the Salome story.
Atom Egoyan has lots to do with SALOME. In the film SEVEN VEILS, Vinessa Antoine, as well as Ambur Braid as Salome and Michael Kupfer-Radecky as John the Baptist. Braid and Kupfer-Radecky both starred in the Canadian Opera Company’s most recent production of Salome, which Egoyan also directed after first directing the opera for the Company in 1996.
SEVEN VEILS premiered in Canada at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023. is in select theatres (at the TIFF Lightbox) across Canada on March 7
Trailer:
THE SILENT PLANET (Canada 2024) ***
Directed by Jeffrey St. James
THE SILENT PLANET is a Canadian science fiction film, directed by Jeffrey St. Jules that premiered at the Fantasy Film Festival in 2024, where it was first runner-up for the Audience Award for Best Canadian Feature.
Theodore (Elias Koteas, CRASH, CHICAGO P.D.) is alone. Far from the Earth’s surface, he's a miner in the Capillian Star System on penal colony planet #384, sending extraterrestrial minerals to Earth via an interplanetary delivery system. It’s an experimental colonization project, and he is the only prisoner there. Ailing and half-sane, his life is routine, with journaling, watching TV show reruns, and taking comfort in memories of his life on Earth.
When a young woman named Niyya (Briana Middleton, SHARPER, THE TENDER BAR) is sent to planet #384 on terrorist charges, her tragic past follows her. Adopted by an alien race called “Oieans,” her resistance to prejudice towards the aliens and the history of their massacre lands her on this planet with Theodore. As they learn more about each other, Niyya suspects an ugly truth lies deep in Theodore’s deteriorating mind. The Oieans have their own language. In fact the fill begins with one of their quotes, surprisingly the viewer's first impression is to think that Oiean is the name of a writer,
THE SILENT PLANET is set on an isolated planet, supposedly a penal colony for convicts who have committed treason, murder or terrorism. The film is basically a two-handler, one of Theodore the sole living inhabitant convict on the planet, When he is dying, someone is sent to replace him, Niyya—the interaction of the two forms the film’s premise.
The film covers issues of politics like genocide and also living in isolation. Is Theodore crazy? If one lives in isolation, does it matter? And also comes to debate on truth. Is his past a lie, made up, or is it the truth? And does it really matter? When one loses one's memory, everything is gone, which is a scary thought that haunts Theodore. Or is he really Nathan, another person of the past?
For a small-budget film, director St. Jules covers the issues admirably. The film is also simple in delivery, thus making it difficult to find fault with. The film also possesses a sci-fi look, one reminiscent of the 70’s sci-fi films. The lodging where the two are put up is minimal which allows a quaint and futuristic design (great production design by Andrew Berry).
The director Jeffrey St. Jules is no stranger to sci-fi films. Neither is he a novice. Jeffrey St. Jules is well known as a Canadian film director and screenwriter, who won the Claude Jutra Award in 2015 for his debut feature film BAND BANG BABY. The film also won the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. His reputation allowed him to get veteran Canadian actor Elias Koteas to star in THE SILENT PLANET.
THE SILENT PLANET opens in Toronto at the Carlton Cinemas on March 7th.
Trailer:
