What’s in theatres? We’ll tell you.

Renfield

Renfield, Dracula’s snivellingly unconfident henchman and pawn for decades, longs for a life away from the Count, and his various demands for the blood of the innocent, as underdog traffic cop Rebecca enlists Renfield in her investigations into mama’s boy Tedward Lobo’s crime family.

Nic Cage once remarked that he had only three bucket list roles: Captain Nemo, Superman and Dracula. The last makes a lot of sense for Cage; character actors have made great work of the gentleman beast, a suave aristocrat barely containing the bloodlust beneath the cowl. This particular Dracula is dead and loving it; the sort of guy who drinks blood martinis with eyeballs for olives. Twitching, breathy and unpredictable, it’s an unsurprisingly broad portrayal, though unlike a lot of Cage roles (almost all great in their own right), this one seems to know what movie it’s in, even if that movie doesn’t live up to its cast.

Among them, Awkwafina as the determined traffic cop, once more plays herself with greater fidelity than Cage played himself with in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, while Ben Schwartz produces the most histrionics as a coked-up mob “boss” under the thumb of his mob boss (no quotes) mother (Shohreh Aghdashloo). Taking the exaggeration crown for a movie also starring Nicolas Cage is really something. Nicolas Hoult in the leading role plays into his ‘ball of nerves’ quality, and others (like Rhianna Dhillon) have suggested a resemblance to a younger Hugh Grant’s self-effacing cluelessness.

On the filmmaking end, the score plays its hand overbearingly, as if to accommodate for the inadequacies of the script. The same could be said for the editing, which zips past jokes so that the weak ones don’t linger so much (it would be interesting to see if the final product here might have been cleaved from a significantly longer cut). All said, discounting the performances and a certain gleefulness, the spurts of cartoonish gore as Renfield chomps bugs to power up are really the reason to see this (even if the action itself underdelivers slightly). When it comes, that gore is plenty, but with Evil Dead Rise on the horizon, will that be enough?

Take a look at the second trailer above. If the wink-wink, “Bet you’re wondering how I got into this situation?” sense of humour irks you, steer clear. The rest of the foundation is loaded with some amateur dramatics, a few serviceable dramatics, light chuckles, mildly spooky aesthetics. Despite that, you’re never quite able to sink your teeth into much of it. Perhaps that’s why the carnal, cartoonish flesh flaying stands out so much.

In the end the film squeaks its way into a recommendation, though ultimately, Renfield is a Drac of all trades and a master of none.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

‘The story of The Super Mario Bros. on their journey through the Mushroom Kingdom.’

OR

Mario™ and Luigi™ from the Super Mario Brothers™ games go to the Mushroom Kingdom™ from the Marioworld™ of games, where they meet Mariobrand™ characters, see Mariobrand™ places, and do Mario-type™ moves as seen in the collection of Super Mario™ games.

Nintendo has been around for well over a hundred years, and you don’t pull that market miracle off without a ridiculous level of oversight. After the disastrous live-action reputation-detriment of the original Super Mario Bros. Movie, there was no way the corporation would let the studio behind this film, let alone the creatives, deviate from a company approved image. Here’s what we knew we’d be getting. The music library connections at Universal, plus some of the best videogame soundtracks ever to draw on for the score, make for a polished soundtrack. We knew Illumination would step up their game as far as their animation was concerned, combined with the already vibrant world of the Mario games. We knew there’d be easter eggs crammed into every pixel (the Mario world is conveniently partial to this approach) to satisfy the loudest idiots on the internet. We knew famous folk would be tapped for voice acting, and though there were concerns immediately following the announcement, there was never a chance Nintendo would let them ruin the movie.

Chris Pratt is a strange choice for Mario, but the voice never seems to be coming from anywhere other than the little plumber on screen. Jack Black is an inspired choice for Bowser, though the voice seems to come distinctly from a recording booth. Seth Rogen (laugh and all), Charlie Day, Keegan-Michael Key, all are good to great, and one hopes Anya Taylor-Joy enjoys the first shameless paycheck of her illustrious career. We knew there’d be usual kids’ film humour. We knew it would offend no one.

Knowing all that, this is the worst-case scenario. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the above, nothing more, nothing less. The climax devolves into another superheroesque super smash-down to save the town. I’ve censured The Super Mario Brothers Movie a fair bit, but it should come as no surprise ($1 billion and counting) that it’s not an unpleasant viewing experience. Still, it’s all machinations. Colours. Why not just play the game? What even is this? This hulking placement of product? This quintessence of dust?

Polite Society

Ria Khan, aspiring stuntwoman, believes that she must save her older sister Lena, a resigned art school dropout, from her impending marriage to an all-too-charming Doctor. After enlisting her mutually odd friends’ help, she attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists, in the name of independence and sisterhood.

Polite Society is a charmingly good time, a comedy with minor action edges, so please do watch it, but it’s not entirely perfect (don’t be deterred, it’s just worth acknowledging). There is the occasional stink of TV, especially the Sex Education-style banter (mind you, TV at the moment is pretty great). In fact, Polite Society is most reminiscent of a movie-brat afterbirth, though better done than most (this is the project every 2000s film student thought they’d make their name with). Edgar Wright’s editing lexicon and aggressive sound effects, Tarantino’s musical rolodex, chapterization and genre lifting, this is a movie that seems to love movies which love movies. The ease of access and embrace of Letterboxian film fanaticism, its hour come round at last, slouches to the cinema to be born, and we can expect more cinematically involved work along that of the Daniels.

The post-personal cinematic appeal is held aloft by an excellent cast, adorned by hammy, archetypal aunties and snotty high school frenemies. Best of all, the sibling dynamic between Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya is aces, and the pair are pleasantly allowed their imperfections (Ria is often a horrible person, but her tenacity and intentions keep you rooting for this underdog; she has a sparkling screen presence, even as it passes through TV heroine form). This is a silly movie, where such everyday things are capitalized, italicised and steered over the top, as sibling scraps are elevated to gravity-defying, blood-drawing mixed martial arts duels and evil aunts aren’t just naggy or patronising, they’re maniacal. The family and love lives of the Kahn’s brings a web of playfully Pride and Prejudice-inflected joyful concern (though this has an ending that probably reads as more satisfying than that novel’s today), grounded in the sort of fantasies of an imaginative younger sister, even as the resolution runs off with them.

Polite Society is a lot of fun, and brings a novel perspective, if not extending that quality completely to its filmmaking, but it’s ultimately so particular that it can’t help but feel fresh. We can only hope it plays as a UK answer to the freewheeling Everything, Everywhere All At Once, with enough local appeal to reward its endeavours. We’d be better off with more films from Nida Manzoor to come.

The Wizard of Oz

As a part of Ster-Kinekor’s Throwback Thursdays, The Wizard of Oz was on the big screen this past week. There’s nothing to say about seeing The Wizard of Oz for the millionth time. It’s perfect. There is something to say about seeing it in the cinema for the first time. Seeing the effects blown up, a few are all the more charmingly quaint, most prove impossibly ageless. It doesn’t look like life today, it looks like the dream of Oz, but it’s a seamless one.

The sound is much more robust. The low rumbles of the Witch’s arrivals prove they’ve been rather scarier than I’d recalled, all to the gain of younger viewers sitting in tall seats. The Tinman creaks and clangs precisely as he would, so subtly making him real, which can go unnoticed so easily.

And lastly, the communal experience. Seeing it with the young at heart bringing their kids along for their first time over the rainbow, of course they participated, sometimes restlessly (mostly during the Kansas scenes), but you also get to hear their reaction to Dorothy opening her door to a world of colour (specifically “Wow!”). Happy to report that the cowardly lion remains everyone’s favourite, as well.

Otherwise, unlike most first times seeing a much beloved film on the big screen again, finding yourself more involved than before, hyper aware of your newly found appreciation and thankfulness for this opportunity, this screening just let me melt back into the story as I always do.

Screenings of The Wizard of Oz seem to have been a one time deal, but keep an eye out for your favourites to come up for Throwback Thursdays (in particular, keep abreast of the WarnerBrothers100 films being celebrated).