Plot: Desperate to reconcile with his estranged wife, Elliot stops at a desert motel where he encounters Greta, an uncanny woman on the run from a mysterious past.
Runtime: 2 Hours 1 Minute
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Silent River starts when Elliot (Liang) is looking to reconcile with his estranged wife. He finds himself in a desert motel where he meets Greta (Tsang) a woman with her own mystery. As the two starts talking, they learn about the mystery of the location and what they both want from it.
The deeper the two get into conversation the more truths come out. Ones that will show the bigger meaning to the meeting and why they are at this location.
Verdict on Silent River
Silent River is a mystery sci-fi movie that follows two people who find themselves trapped in a desert motel. They must work together to understand the meaning of their meeting, which only offers up more questions.
To say this movie is strange would be an understatement, as there are a lot of building up to something big moments. Only for it to feel like that impact shot is missing. It does dive into an area you wouldn’t expect, keeping us wondering what the deeper meaning of everything going on.
The performances are strong, with the location helping add to the mystery we find ourselves in. This is a movie where every little detail is playing into something bigger going on.
Final Thoughts – Silent River is a strange yet unique movie that has plenty of questions in the air.
Plot: A 1950s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company could be hiding disturbing secrets.
Runtime: 2 Hours 2 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Don’t Worry Darling starts when 1950s housewife Alice (Pugh) finds herself going through the same routine. When one of her neighbours starts questioning more about the world, Alice starts questioning her own sanity.
The deeper Alice starts to investigate the leader of the Victory Project Frank (Pine), the stranger things start becoming. Alice risks her and her husband Jack’s (Styles) future in the project in her quest for answers.
Verdict on Don’t Worry Darling
Characters
Alice is an everyday 1950s American housewife, preparing dinner, cleaning the house and spending time with the other wives. When one of her friends and neighbours starts asking a few more questions about their home. Alice starts to experience strange events, leading her to break from the traditional routine she finds herself in. She questions everything in her world, learning more about the position she finds herself in.
Jack is Alice’s devoted husband who works on the dot every day and comes to her for parties. He will do anything for her, as he loves her but doesn’t understand the change she is going through.
Frank is the mastermind of the Victory Project. He tends to keep to himself, saving his interactions for speeches when welcoming new families. Frank is respected by everyone, and it is only when people start questioning the world, that we see a different side to him.
In the supporting characters, we have other wives Bunny, Margaret, Violet and Peg who have known each other and spend most days living a life of luxury.
Performances
Florence Pugh is incredible once again, being everything, we would have imagined from her in this role. She shows the ray of sunshine perfectly, before showing the side that is losing her mind.
Chris Pine and Gemma Chan are also excellent in their supporting roles, controlling the scenes they are in. Harry Styles is well in the sweetheart husband role but struggles more in the intense moments.
Story
The story follows a perfect 1950s world in a new project in the middle of the desert. When one of the housewives starts questioning what is going on, we see a mindset change in others within the community. As Alice looks for answers, she is left to learn an even more shocking discovery about her world.
This story starts out easily seeing something wrong, it is clearly not everything is right. It leaves us to follow Alice as she searches for the truth, as not everything is running as smoothly as it could. If things start adding up, things are often taken away from us again and by the end, it still doesn’t feel finished with the story side of things.
Themes
Don’t Worry Darling is a mystery thriller set in a remote desert community, where they believe they are working for a brighter future. It looks like a perfect world, everything is on service and nothing looks out of place. The mystery comes from one of the residents questioning what is going on, unsure of how to handle the event she can’t explain. This does let the story dive into other genres that only seem to create a bigger mystery.
Final Thoughts – Don’t Worry Darling has plenty of mysteries, only to fall flat with the ending.
Plot: Lucy (Jessica Raine), is woken every night by terrifying visions at exactly 3.33 am: the devil’s hour. Her eight-year-old son is withdrawn and emotionless. Her mother speaks to empty chairs. Lucy’s house is haunted by the echoes of a life that isn’t her own.
Runtime: 58 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Devil’s Hour starts as child protective service officer Lucy Chambers (Raine) finds herself waking at 3.33 am every night. It starts with her son Isaac also being awake. Elsewhere, DI Ravi Dhillon (Patel) is investigating a murder with his partner DS Nick Holness (Ferns).
As Lucy continues on her own job, her visions and past start to give her warnings. Meanwhile, Ravi sees a connection in his case, with a previous unsolved missing person case.
Verdict on The Devil’s Hour
The Devil’s Hour Episode One gives us an excellent introduction to our two main characters. This sees us learn about Lucy and her struggles, along with her career which sees her put into stressful situations. Ravi shows us a detective that can think outside the box, as he looks for answers.
This first episode leaves us wanting more, as the mystery is only just beginning. There is plenty to digest and you could easily spend time focusing on the clues we are given. Jessica Raine, Nikesh Patel and Alex Ferns are great to watch, as we see the dynamic their characters must play out.
Where to Watch: The Devil’s Hour will debut in October on Amazon Prime Video.
Final Thoughts – The Devil’s Hour leaves you wanting more and wanting to see how the mystery unfolds.
No Sudden Move is a movie that lacks the spark of an ensemble cast. Failing to give us enough focus on the lead character’s journey.
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Ed Solomon (Screenplay)
Starring: Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, David Harbour, Joe Hamm, Craig muMs Grant, Brendan Fraser, Julia Fox, Kiera Culkin, Amy Seimetz, Noah Jupe
Plot: A group of criminals are brought together under mysterious circumstances. Having to work together to uncover what’s really going on when their simple job goes completely sideways.
Tagline – Trust is a Setup
Runtime: 1 Hour 55 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: No Sudden Move starts when Curt Goynes (Cheadle), Ronald Russo (Del Toro) and Charley (Culkin) are put together by Doug Jones (Fraser). For a job to get information from Matt Wertz (Harbour).
When the job goes wrong Curt and Ronald must figure out how to get the information. They want to clear their names and save the family of Matt from the organised crime boss that wants the information.
Thoughts on No Sudden Move
No Sudden Move is a crime mystery that will find two men caught up in the middle of something they need to solve to make it out alive. This is a tale that does have plenty of characters involved. With each scene seemingly adding more to the bigger picture going on. Leading us down many dead ends, seemingly adding characters for a speech here and there.
The cast is a who’s who of Hollywood great actors, which is what you would expect from a Soderbergh movie. Where nobody is giving us bad performance here. This movie does feel aimless though, leading us down so many different roads. Not given enough focus to the two leads, leaving us with plenty of loose ends too.
Who Pressed Pause on Uncle Marcus? – Fun Interactive Game
Director: Steven Sheil
Starring: Andy Buckley, Eileen Davies, Susannah Doyle, Gabrielle Glaister, Abigail Hardingham, Robbie Kay, Georgia Small, Al Weaver
Plot: Every year, Abby’s mum has a family quiz on her birthday. It’s a long-held tradition, one that brings the whole rich and eccentric family together – and one that Abby dreads. But this year’s quiz comes with a shocking difference… as it’s about to begin, her beloved Uncle Marcus tells her that he’s dying – and someone in the family has poisoned him. Abby is the only one he can trust… You must find out who the murderer is before it is too late.
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Who Pressed Pause on Uncle Marcus? Starts when Abby (Hardingham) gets a call from her Uncle Marcus (Buckley) that isn’t the most popular with the rest of the family. Marcus informs Abby that he has been poisoned and that a member of the family is behind it, with only Abby being innocent because she wasn’t at the last meeting.
As Abby’s mum Felicity (Glaister) brings the family quiz, with Abby’s sister Lottie (Small), Aunt June (Doyle), nephews Toby (Weaver) and Bradley (Kay) along with Nan (Davies). Abby must interact in private with each member of the quiz in search for clues.
Thoughts on Who Pressed Pause on Uncle Marcus?
Thoughts – Who Pressed Pause on Uncle Marcus? Is an interactive video game where you will play as the quiet member of a family that is filled with colourful characters to sum up the different members of the family, which will have one of them as the suspect in the murder of Uncle Murder, as he is facing his final hours after being poisoned. This is a game that you will need to play through a couple of times to unlock the evidence to accuse someone of the crime, which can be frustrating if you don’t get enough evidence, even if you can skip scenes that are repeated. The positive about the replay through, is that each play through will only be 40 minutes or so, with the ability to skip over the parts that don’t change. The set up for the mystery will give each of the characters a chance to have been behind the poisoning after an incident, which could see anyone of them being behind it. This does have a good sense of mystery that will let you want to get behind solving, as well as giving us the time to process the answers we would like to choose. The fact the game will let you save the progress made on each run through is helpful and will make you want to jump through certain interactions for more information again, with the easy skip feature for the bits you have been through already. One of the problems here comes from the team options, you will always lose three options before a round, leaving you with just three to pick from, which will leave you without options for the people you would like to interact with during the questioning stages of the game. One feature that could have been a bit of fun, would be a wild guess card, if you don’t have enough evidence you can’t accuse someone, even if you believe they might be behind it.
WHO PRESSED MUTE ON UNCLE MARCUS? will be released 18th March on PC & Mac (via Steam), iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and pre-order available 4th March https://walesinteractive.com/whopressedmuteonunclemarcus
Starring: Hayden Christensen, Harvey Keitel, Marco Leonardi, Liz Solari, Fernan Miras, Justin Kelly
Plot: Kurt, combat veteran with PTSD and hallucinations, fortifies his home and builds a secret underground shelter due to doomsday like weather changes. He gets a security job to pay for it and his boss’ cute daughter for company.
Tagline – Are you ready to survive?
Runtime: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Last Man starts as we meet Kurt (Christensen) a veteran suffering from PTSD, living in a world that has seen climate change hit hard and civilization fall apart. Kurt has been planning for the worst, with Noe (Keitel) the local doomsday preacher helping him understand what is happening in the world.
Kurt needs to make money, which will see him taking a role in a company that is still standing, where he will meet the boss’s daughter Jessica (Solari), giving him something more to survive for.
Thoughts on The Last Man
Thoughts – The Last Man is a mystery thriller that will show the struggles a man suffering from PTSD could start to see the world coming to an end in his own eyes, while everyone else around him doesn’t believe him. This is a story that does feel like it gets caught up in trying to give us an edge, with wanting to make sure Kurt is the only one that is right, never giving us enough belief that he could be unstable and the world is fine. The story never gives us enough of what could happen, yes it says a storm, but it is never made clear what it will be, despite having the world never looking like it is together one moment, then having everyday office work the next. The world is never convincing, despite Hayden Christensen trying his best to make something more from the material given to him, this will end up falling towards the flatter side of things, where you could easily watch ‘Take Shelter’ for the similar story, but much more interesting version of it.
Final Thoughts – The Last Man is a flat thriller without the punch to make the impact it wants to.
Writer: John Oak Dalton (Screenplay) Paige Kay Davis, Michael Raso (Story)
Starring: Dawson Hilfiger, Nicholas Olson, Sophie Guss, Lucien Limberg, Grace Hines, Hannah Guss, James Kelly
Plot: Four teens are swept into the adventure of a lifetime involving a legendary creature and a mystery from the past that will change their lives forever.
Runtime: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Reel Monsters starts as Cory (Hilfiger), Boone (Olson), Sandra (Sophie Guss) and Millie (Hines) are looking to investigate the mystery behind Cory’s father’s mystery film he recorded when he was younger before moving away.
As the four look deeper into the mystery, we see how Cory’s dad Will went through the same night, which has created the distant side to him ever since his own teenage experience.
Thoughts on Reel Monsters
Thoughts – Reel Monsters is a coming-of-age tale about four friends looking to solve the mystery from one of their father’s past, which has always made him out to be more distant to his son. The coming together to overcome the bullies and searching for answers is a nice side to the story, it all works well. The actors do work well together, showing the adventuring chemistry between themselves, where everything is needed. Reel Monsters does have flaws and that is the jumping between the two times, which doesn’t feel like a generational difference for the characters to be going through. The location doesn’t seem like the place that has as much threat as it could either, more like a random edge of the woods, not offering enough peril as to what could happen.
Final Thoughts – Reel Monsters is an easy to watch coming-of-age tale.
Plot: Paul (Morgan) investigates his late father’s increasingly disturbing past and becomes suspicious of the mysterious, melancholic, and possibly dangerous Madeleine (Ardant).
Runtime: 1 Hour 32 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Waiting for You starts when Paul Ashton (Morgan) sees his father die in hospital, leaving him one message on his deathbed, one about his time in the military, one that his mum Janet (Holman) didn’t know anything about.
Paul decides to investigate the story and head to France to learn about this mysterious person, leading him straight to Madeleine Brown (Ardant).
Thoughts on Waiting for You
Thoughts – Waiting for You follows a young man that goes in search for a mystery about his late father’s past, where he meets a mysterious woman who has a connection to his father and a beautiful woman that helps him through the grieving process. This is a story that focuses on the life journey that Paul must go through to help him deal with losing a loved one, it shows take a leap of faith will help him learn more to help himself and his mother get peace in losing his father and her husband. It all runs smoothly for a story, without being one that gives us anything new. The performances in the film are strong through the film, while the locations bring all of the beauty to the backdrops through the film.
Final Thoughts – Waiting for You is a sweet simple coming of age movie that shows what you might not get everything you want in life.
Plot: A woman narrates the final night on earth of a 100-year old man, whom fights for redemption from his life’s misdeeds.
Runtime: 1 Hour 7 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Thoughts on Nocturna: Side B – Where the Elephants Go to Die
Thoughts – Nocturna: Side B – Where the Elephants Go to Die is another perspective of the events of the Side A, with a narration, music and different style used for the film, like we are looking back through a memory catalogue. This is another unique way to look at a movie, despite having the same story, it will amaze seeing how it could be seen in a different way. How many films would you like to see from a different angle, this offers that up. The negative from this does come from the fact it is nothing more in story, just the spin on the first vision of the film.
Final Thoughts – Nocturna: Side B – Where the Elephants Go to Die is nice spin on seeing a story from a different angle.
