Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Ok, what did we already know?

Godzilla is living under the ocean somewhere in some sort of hibernation since 2014 when Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen survived his invasion. Since then we’ve been to Skull Island with Bri Larson and Tom Hiddleston and met Kong.

Time has passed and Vera Farmiga and Kyle Chandler are grieving their son after he died in the first Godzilla attack and by the by ended up working for Monarch, the organisation who protect the Titans. Farmiga’s character, Emma, has developed a piece of equipment

to communicate with the Titans and in an attempt to control them decides that actually, the best thing to do is kill the human race. Similar to how Thanos wanted a perfect balance in Infinity War, Emma wanted to destroy the planet that evidently meant losing her only son.

With the help of her daughter Madison, played by Millie Bobby Brown, she gets herself tangled up with the likes of Charles Dance and everything goes a bit squiffy.

Whilst all of that’s happening ‘Zilla comes out of his long nap and ends up fighting against the Hydra-like monster in an attempt to keep his thrown as King of Monsters. With a few other mega-monsters, known as Titans, thrown in for good measure.

There were so many elements of this film that I’m bound to forget but I found myself getting seriously invested to the point that I was jumping out of my skin and actually covering my eyes in parts. It was fun and exciting and the human characters didn’t steal the spotlight of what I wanted to see, the monsters!

It was brilliantly directed…I’m being serious! The cinematography was really quite fantastic. A lot of it was shot from an almost POV aspect which worked really well, it felt like you were in there with all the action. I’d imagine it was really powerful in IMAX or ScreenX.

The visual effects were also very nice, especially for Godzilla himself, they felt really clean and convincing. I often comment on the “weight” of CGI characters (and I can’t be bothered to explain what I mean by that right now) but the weight of the monsters was spot on.

Ok, yes, the screenplay was patchy and at times incredibly cheesy ‘long live the king’ but it worked. But really, who even goes to films like this to appreciate the screenplay?

They utilised a fantastic cast with a couple of surprises along the way and some great performances. Especially from Brown, she really has perfected the traumatised-teenager role.

With subtle nods towards Godzilla vs. Kong (the next and I assume final instalment of this saga) I really enjoyed this blockbuster epic, it was fast paced, funny when it needed to be and generally very entertaining. I think the bad reviews are coming from people who were expecting more than a monster fighting monster film, because that’s exactly what it was and it was a great version of that.

Thunder Road

Written, directed and starring Jim Cummings (no – not that Jim Cummings, I thought that too, like the voice of Winnie the Pooh has suddenly decided to do his own film??) Thunder Road is a brutal, honest telling of a middle aged man going through different stages of his life whilst dealing with mental health issues. 

The film opens with Jim’s mothers funeral where he is the only one of his three siblings to attend, he is left to do the eulogy despite his own anguish. During the service he suffers an emotional breakdown and starts going off on a tangent about how his mother used to play him Bruce Springsteens Thunder Road to help him get to sleep. It’s uncomfortable to watch and relative for anyone dealing with loss, filmed completely in one take and running for approx 7/8 minutes it’s a powerful opening to the film.

This scene was taken from the short film of the same name, again written, directed and starring Cummings. 

Throughout the film Jim deals with more loss, stress, depression and the struggles of parenthood.

Incredibly strong performance from Cummings, amazing use of monologues and pure concentration on his character and how all the events of the plot effect him. Could be seen as quite self indulgent and will definitely be a love it/hate it film but for me it was really gripping and at times had me on the edge of my seat. Cummings should be incredibly proud of his creation. 

Safe to say this was unexpected excellence.

Booksmart

Telling the story of two best friends who are just about to graduate high school, Booksmart follows Molly and Amy as they experience what it means to be reckless teenagers on their last night of high school before going off to college.

Olivia Wildes’ directorial debut is a powerhouse in the league of coming of age stories, directed with true force and pure honesty of someone who has undoubtably been through very similar situations in her own teens. 

Full of heart and humour, Booksmart sets the bar of coming of age films for years to come, taking the place of previous cult classics such as Mean Girls, Stand by Me, Superbad and Easy A. 

Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein are a true tour de force, creating believable, lovable and sometimes cringe worthy characters in a way that people who have been through their teenage years with an inseparable best friend could easily relate to. 

The supporting cast absolutely kill it too, Billie Lourd absolutely stole the show for me, bringing a completely brilliant comical character, to what could be deemed quite a serious heart wrenching story, to life. She is completely original, fresh and flamboyant and everything I wanted her to be. 

Jason Sudeikis also brings some adult supervision to the film in the form of the useless principle, whilst bringing up important political issues such as the underpayment of teachers in the U.S. Another credit to Wilde’s writing.

The character development is fast and relevant, the two girls have done nothing but study and pass tests throughout their entire education up until this point and this one night is proof that they can be fun and smart.
I loved the complete reinvention of the high school dynamic, there were some real surprises in some of the characters, particularly as romantic relationships started to emerge. I loved how the “geeky kids” were actually the ones judging the “popular kids” instead of the conventional way of the popular kids being the bullies. 

Fresh, original and completely relevant, Booksmart absolutely stole my heart and I hope anyone who struggled through those dreaded teenage years gets a chance to see it. Olivia Wilde deserves recognition for her incredible creation.