Film Review - Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

Where the Crawdads Sing is based off of the novel by Delia Owens and stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kya Clark also known as the Marsh Girl in 1969 North Carolina and she has lived there away from the main town all her life much to the mocking and dismissiveness of the townspeople but when she is accused of murdering a young Quarterback (Harris Dickinson) she must defend her name before the law and a town that more than once has turned its back on her and hated her for the way she has lived her life.

 

Where the Crawdads Sing was a movie I had hoped would do well in the box office as it was being pitched at the female audience who have been among the most hesitant to return the theatres since the worst of the pandemic has passed us by and also I had heard from some good friends of mine that they really enjoyed the book and that it was ripe for a film adaptation so I went in hoping for the best.

 

And for the most part I didn’t hate it but I did have some issues with it but firstly I will touch on what does work and top of that list is Daisy Edgar-Jones herself, she is excellent in this movie and I couldn’t believe she was a British actress as her North Carolina accent is that good I thought she was from the Southern USA area and also she does a lot of good physical acting with her eyes, her walk, her body movements as if she was one of the many animals who live in the Marsh but this one is human instead of a bird or a fish plus her facial expressions say a lot as well, I hope I get to see more of her in future movies as she shows an awful lot of promise here.

 

And also I enjoyed the films romantic scenes and love story for the most part, I was taken in with those moments more than I thought I would based off of the preview for the film I’d seen in front of other films and Edgar-Jones has pretty good chemistry with Dickinson and Taylor John Smith who plays Tate another boy who begins to warm to Kya and teaches her things the Marsh cannot.

 

But where this film falls over sadly is in its courtroom scenes, don’t get me wrong they aren’t terrible but they also don’t really do very much for the film either and they firstly feel like they go on for a long time and suck all of the momentum out of the film and its Marsh storyline but also Kya just sits there and stares off into space and again it feels like the life out of this film is being sucked out of it in a vacuum cleaner.

 

And also David Straithairn who plays Kya’s lawyer is okay but there were a number of times where I felt he looked very frail in his scenes on the stand questioning people in the witness box and I couldn’t help but think that perhaps it would have been better if another actor who was slightly younger was cast in that role instead.

 

And lastly the Marsh itself looks a little disappointing on film, I can imagine for those reading the book that the Marsh feels like a character in and of itself in the story, it feels inviting/dangerous/full of wonders and thick bush that would’ve looked great on film in the right hands and done it justice but here it just looked like a normal grassland at times and that was disappointing as well.

 

And so that was Where the Crawdads Sing and it’s a mixed bag for me overall, it has very good moments but also very disappointing ones and because of that it gets a 2 and a half out of 5 from me.

Film Review - The Phantom of the Open (2022)

The Phantom of the Open is a British comedy drama film that stars Mark Rylance as Maurice Flitcroft, a crane driver in Barrow, England who marries Jean (Sally Hawkins) a wannabe theatre actress who puts her dreams on hold when she has her children Mike (Jake Davies) and other 2 sons James and Gene (Jonah and Christian Lees) but one night on TV he sees a round of the British Open being played and decides to then take up Golf and is later accepted into the British Open but his playing skills make him a laughing stock but Maurice is determined to keep calm and soldier on.

 

The Phantom of the Open is again another solid little movie that comes and does its job well even if it wasn’t one that I felt was going to rank highly at the end of the year, Rylance is very charming here and often a lot of fun as Maurice as he tries to figure out the next phase of his life after his children grow up and lead lives of their own and finds it in the Golf Course despite many objections by those around him who play professionally and it was good to see Rylance in a role like this where he prove he's a good comedic actor instead of the serious roles he often plays.

 

Also good is Sally Hawkins as Jean as someone who looks as though she has put up with a lot in her life be it having her first child out of wedlock to having 2 more sons and losing her own dreams and then watching Maurice try and find his way again when they easily could’ve enjoyed a nice retirement in the late 70s but she does a good job as do the Lees twins and Jake Davies who often get frustrated with their dad but still love him nonetheless.

 

Also good is Rhys Ifans no stranger to playing over the top characters (he was recently in the Kings Man prequel from the beginning of the year) as the villainous golf official Mr McKenzie who often butts heads with Maurice, and he is good in this role and his scenes with Rylance are enjoyable as well.

 

And so that was the Phantom of the Open and look it’s not the best movie I’ve seen this year, but I liked it for what it was and had fun watching it, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Black Phone (2022)

The Black Phone is a new horror film directed by Scott Derrickson and stars Mason Thames as Finney a young boy in 1978 America who is kidnapped one day by a masked man known only as the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) and he holds Finney in a soundproof cellar underneath his house but on the wall is a black phone that supposedly doesn’t work anymore but rings when Finney is in there and what he hears on the other end he plans to help use to escape his captor.

 

The Black Phone is a good solid little horror film and like Malignant which came out last year is best seen in a dark cinema on a Friday night as you will really get the full impact of the horror moments in this movie when you see it there instead of on TV at home as Derrickson’s horror direction makes full use of the dark cinema environment in a way that is very evocative of the situation, he has Finney captured in.

 

The cellar looks very good on that big cinema screen and watching it there you feel the emptiness, isolation and cold dark cement on the walls with little or no hope of escape and it helps to generate some good horror moments that work very well in the cinema.

 

As for the rest of the film it’s pretty good, the 1978 recreation is okay though nothing to really ring about on the telephone and Ethan Hawke is effective as the Grabber with that weird mask the character wears that looks very mad on one face and has a big Joker like grin on the other and that character worked well for me in terms of generating tension regarding whether Finney would be able to escape or not and there were times where I thought to myself he is going to get caught.

 

Another solid performance is by Madeleine McGraw as Gwen who is Finney’s younger sister and may have some ideas as to help find her missing brother.

 

And so that was the Black Phone and it’s a good solid little horror film worth seeing on the big screen especially on a dark night session, 3 out of 5.