The Witch
Some cretins have said this isn't a real horror film. Ignore them. Robert Eggers' tale of New England religious hysteria is one of the scariest - and greatest - horror films I've seen in years, whose goat- and witch-based scares are augmented by the film's investments in story, character, and ambiguous subtext. When I say I was almost sick twice, I mean it as the highest compliment.
★★★★★
High-Rise
I like Ben Wheatley, but I found his High-Rise to be a bit of a trial. True, the production design is astonishingly good - the 70s have never felt so hellishly concrete - and there's something special in its astutely choreographed scenes of orgiastic chaos. But in maintaining the same kind of pace for two hours, it all becomes numbing spectacle, detracting somewhat from the demented clarity of Ballard's original vision.
★★★
Midnight Special
A.k.a. The Case of the Missing First Act. Why so many critics have responded so positively to Jeff Nichols' latest is beyond me. By jumping straight into its road movie premise, and by refusing to use any kind of flashback structure, we never find out who, exactly, the central characters are - or why we should care about them. Nichols tries to combine his deep South aesthetic with something more Spielbergian, but fails on both fronts. The tone is too dour; Michael Shannon is given nothing to do except practice his concerned face; and the actual sci-fi, when it finally emerges, is astonishingly vague, even a bit stoned. It's not terrible, and there are a few nice set-pieces, like a meteor strike at a gas station. But Jesus, when that final reveal came, I wanted to throw things at the screen.
★★
The Jungle Book
It's weird to think that this film was made in a studio somewhere in London. The effects are so good that I almost believed I was in India, surrounded by real animals with suspiciously familiar American accents. If only it wasn't for the damn kid playing Mowgli. He can't act to save his life. And the whole musical-not-a-musical thing - including The Bear Necessities and I Wanna Be Like You, but nothing else - feels out of place, a decision motivated by nostalgia. But when you've got a stunningly realistic tiger, voiced by Idris Elba, of all people, then does anything else really matter?
★★★★
Eye in the Sky
Argh. It might as well be a stage play. It simplifies the debate about the issue to something depressingly basic. It undermines its central premise by including some clearly unrealistic technology. And to top it all off, the whole damn thing's too bloody sentimental - would drone operators really cry at their desks? But even so, Eye in the Sky is still the best film ever made about drones, and I suppose that's saying something.
★★½
