Man of flowers: Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘Anemone’.
ANEMONE ***1/2 (126 minutes) MA
What a shock. Having been absent from our screens for eight years, method actor extraordinaire Daniel Day-Lewis has emerged from his alleged “retirement” in 2017 after Phantom Thread, an announcement that didn’t quite wash.
And it’s a punchy return that reminds us what a compelling screen presence this guy can generate through little more than dialogue.
A searing psychological drama, Anemone, which Day-Lewis co-wrote with his first-time director son Ronan, presents a jagged-edged portrait of a broken man composed of nothing but jagged edges.
Deeply scarred by domestic disharmony, child abuse and military injustice, Ray Stoker (DD-L) lives as a recluse deep in the forest, living on little more than canned goods and regret.
Laconic to a fault, he barely reacts when his brother Jem (played by Sean Bean, also impressive) turns up with the mission of trying to persuade him back home where his son Brian (Samuel Bottomley) is facing charges for violence, a trait he picked up from his dad.
Clearly not intended for a broad audience or for the faint-of-heart, Anemone is dialogue driven and explores a host of difficult topics with raw-nerve honesty and, it need be said, some pretty riveting monologues from Day-Lewis. The guy can still paint word pictures like few others.
Footnote: As somebody who constantly carps about how long films are these days, the films two-hour running time case as something of a surprise. In all honesty, it felt like 90 minutes. Take that as a measure of how captivating this drama is.
ARCO **** (88 minutes) PG
Catnip for animation fans, Arco lands as a beautiful, traditionally rendered tale about a boy from the far future who, eager to indulge in grown-up adventures, accidentally travels back in time where he meets a girl who helps him try to get back home and avoid the three eccentric agents who are in pursuit.
Again demonstrating how the look of old-style cel-animation holds charm and warmth unmatched by the sheen of digital, this French film sports a lot of wonderful design work, from the Jetsons-like homes of the future to sunglasses.
The film is in very limited release so catch it while you can.
REMINDERS OF HIM *** (114 minutes) M
Grab your travel pack of tissues and hang on for Reminders of Him, a very ably directed romantic tearjerker, a multiplex weepie that knows exactly what emotional buttons to press and which heart strings to pluck.
Fresh out of prison, Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) returns her small-town home hoping to course correct her derailed life by contacting the seven year-old daughter she’s never met.
Standing in the way, however, are the little girl’s caring grandparents (nicely played by Bradley Whitford and Lauren Graham, from Gilmore Girls), still deeply grieving the loss of their son in a horrific accident they blame Kenna for.
Let’s be straight: fans of romantic melodramas don’t go expecting a film full of surprises, so within a few establishing scenes you pretty much know down which path this story is heading, especially when Kenna happens upon the very attractive bar owner Ledger Ward (Tyriq Withers).
Primed to get the tear ducts going, Reminders of Him was co-written and produced by best-selling author Colleen Hoover, who wrote the novel.
As a reminder of her, Hoover also produced the hit film adaptation of her book It Ends With Us, a mass-market weepie that took more than $350m at the box office, which is about double what most weepies dream to take.
GOAT ***1/2 (100 minutes) PG
For kids and their kidults parents, GOAT is the go-to film right now, a frantic tale about an ambitious goat who wants to be a champion basketball player gets a dream chance to prove himself when he is selected to join a major team that is suffering a major losing streak.
Set in a fabulously designed urbanised jungle and boasting an optically-pleasing painterly animation style (like we saw in Ninja Turtles) the snappy story is stuffed with hip pop culture references and moves at a breakneck pace, so no danger of nodding off.
Running beneath all the fun is a swag of positive messaging involving self-respect, teamwork and friendship, with a bit of corporate corruption thrown in for good measure (thank you Simpsons for making this dark theme palatable).
Unlike some other family films of recent years, there’s nothing pushy going on, with the adventure taking centre stage the whole time.
Looks like the big studios have smartened up about what audiences are willing to put up with, and what they won’t.
COLD STORAGE *** (98 minutes) MA
Another week, another zombie movie – and, like the bunch that has blessed us over the past few years, Cold Storage is a damn good trot that offers some fun and engaging variations on the genre while, of course, observing the conventions that have made zombie films part of any horror tragic’s movie menu.
The inexhaustible, ubiquitous Liam Neeson (talk about a work ethic) leads the shenanigans here as a retired government infectious diseases officer who is called in to help contain a fungal virus long thought to have been safely buried.
Late one night and bored out of their skulls, two minimum-wage workers at a remote storage facility (Georgina Campbell; Joe Keery) happen upon the multi-level labyrinth of corridors hidden beneath their facility. Some clumsy investigation soon reveals why it’s hidden.
A zippy horror-comedy featuring gore galore as heads and chests explode with Cronenbergian zest as the alien fungus inflicts all manner of nastiness to any human who comes in contact with it.
In a year that’s turning out to be a big one for zombie yarns, this number chimes in as a singularly silly, fun frolic with the Undead.
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