Nine movies makes August my busiest movie going month since the start of the pandemic last year. I have seen some very good films and enjoyed them all, but one really stands out as my movie of the month. Here are the contenders.
Jungle Cruise – Given how poor the Pirates movies were you would be forgiven for being concerned about a Disney movie based on a theme park ride, but as bad as the sequels were, the first movie in that franchise was actually really good. Jungle cruise doesn’t live up to the first Pirates movie, but is better than the sequels. The plot for what it’s worth involves Emily Blunt hiring a boat captain Dwayne Johnson to take her upriver in search of a MacGuffin pursed by a German prince in a U Boat. Silly, and predictable but Johnson and Blunt are likeable leads. The inevitable sequel has already been green-lit.
Stillwater – A real change of pace for Matt Damon sees him travel to France to visit his estranged daughter, who is in prison for a crime she claims she didn’t commit. The set-up sounds like a Taken style thriller, far from that, it actually has more than a passing resemblance to the Amanda Knox case. Damon is excellent in what is probably his most low-key role.
Free Guy – Ryan Reynolds is at his most Ryan Reynolds as a none player character in a video game who become sentient. The story is very slight, but good fun. Reynolds is on great form as are Jodie Comer and Taika Waititi.
Reminiscence – Feature debut for director Lisa Joy best known as writer/producer of Westworld. Blending an old-school noir with a sci-fi thriller. The central conceit of replaying memories is reminiscent of the superior Strange Days, when you get past that it’s an enjoyable if predicable movie largely thanks to a likeable cast of Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, and Thandiwe Newton.
Pig – Nicolas Cage plays a reclusive truffle hunter. When he goes looking for his stolen pig, you would expect a John Wick style revenge thriller. What we get is a much more low-key and thoughtful movie, and Cage’s best performance in years.
Censor – Set in the height of the video-nasty scare of the 1980’s Niamh Algar plays a censor who losses her grip on reality as her twin obsession for her work and her sister, missing since childhood, overlap. Algar is excellent, but the real star is writer/director Prano Bailey-Bond who has a clear love and affinity for the genre.
The Courier – Benedict Cumberbatch plays Greville Wynne in the true story of a salesman who is recruited by the security services as a courier for a Russian source during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The real life case on which its based was reportedly John le Carré’s inspiration for The Russia House. Very by the numbers and lacking any originality, but well made with some real tension and strong performances.
The Night House – Rebecca Hall is outstanding playing a woman coming to terms with her husband’s suicide. Living in the isolated lake house they built, she begins to question what is real as tries to understand what happened she. Including but not depending on jump scares it is far more intelligently constructed than you would expect for the story.
Our Ladies – Five friends travel from their small town in the Scottish Highlands to Edinburgh as part of a choir from their catholic girls school. They are given an afternoon of freedom in the big city with the caveat of some very strict rules set by Sister Condron (an excellent Kate Dickie), this all goes out the window as all they have on their minds is sex and booze! Comparisons with Derry Girls are inevitable, it isn’t as funny or as irreverent, but very heartfelt and no less enjoyable.
I have enjoyed all nine movies this month, but there is one clear standout, my movie of the month is:
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