The Brown Note Movie Review

This dire sequel throws everything that made the original special out the window, yet still isn't the worst Hangover film.

Director Jay Roach seems to operate slightly above mid tier, as is the case with this smarter and more soulful than expected political campaign comedy. Will Ferrell and Zach Glifianakis are well matched but you'll likely not remember it.

Full disclosure - I hate everything about Spiderman. This includes the most annoyingly love-struck and teenage of the Marvel gang, the actors playing him and the disrespectfully relentless rebooting of the character, this being one of three iterations since 2002. Though I cannot stand Toby Magurie, the first two Sam Raimi films were undeniably decent but since then its been feeble run. Garfield is my least hated of the actors to take on the role, and the lower key vibe here (without tying itself so opportunistically to the Marvel tent pole) makes it my pick of the films post 2 but its still a curiously vague misfire, just not aggravatingly so.

Ahhh Wes Anderson, king of the kooky and current resident on my banned director list, along with the likes of M Night and Guy Ritchie (though the latter has made an impossible escape just recently) and this is the film that got him there. Lets face it, his best film the Tennanbuams is only a 7/10 due to the presence of Gene Hackman. After hating everything I'd seen, particularly his singular, angular, hipster over substance style, this, yet again inexplicably acclaimed annoyance proved - to this date - the final straw for me. The high score of six here must've been my medication - it's awful.

From the much loved The Last Jedi (lol) to the brilliant Knives Out, writer-director Rian Johnson is one of the most unpredictable forces in modern cinema, again proven with this earlier film, one of the decades most original and atmospheric existential Sci-Fi's. With a strong performance by Bruce Willis backed up by early turns from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt.

A lesser but fascinating work from the always interesting filmmaker David Cronenberg, is a timely and aversive treatise on nihilistic modern capitalism, thats visually arresting and perhaps most interesting now as one of the first jumping off points post Twilight for the kind of actor Robert Pattinson has become.

Ex Press Gang alumni and frequent Guy Ritchie orbiter, Dexter Fletcher has quietly amassed a fair few prominent directorial credits - even stepping into Brian Singer's accused shoes for Bohemian Rhapsody. This would be his finest hour so far, featuring a very early and dominant turn from Will Poulter, in an excellent and comedic grimy urban drama, which subverts the dad coming home from prison trope.

I found this Aussie film devastating and hugely underrated, its writer/director, Jonathan Teplitzky would go on to the very high profile, Railway Man and Churchill. The often brilliant Matthew Goode is in searing film and what I loved most here is, almost uniquely for a film this emotionally shattering, it begins and its most nihilistic and bleak before gradually climbing back towards the light and ending in hope.

This is NOT the awful 2018 teen romance film, but a fantastic and little seen existential vampire film, written and directed by Scott Leberecht. Criminally bypassed by nearly everyone and if you think I'm joking, 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Director Kelly Reichardt (who also made the very interesting Night Moves) takes a very slow west, with Michelle Williams (one of my faves). Certainly decent and good, not very memorable.