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Bird Box
Eyes wide shut
Release In select cinemas from December 13,
on Netflix from 21 December
Director Susanne Bier
Cast Sandra Bullock, Sarah Paulson,
Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, Jacki Weaver,
Danielle Macdonald
Distributor Netflix
Certificate 12
Format
A disaster film that takes itself
seriously sounds like a recipe for...
disaster. Yet Susanne Bier’s Bird Box
avoids the expected pitfalls of boredom
and ridicule by centring on its main character,
Malorie. The role sees Sandra Bullock do what
she does best: put up with the people around
her without a smile on her face. She’s often
played brutally honest characters who’d only
engage in small talk if the circumstances called
for it. When a presence outside pushes everyone
Await Further
Instructions
His master’s voice
Release 7 January
Director Johnny Kervorkian
Cast Sam Gittins, Neerja Naik, Grant Masters,
David Bradley
Distributor Trinity Films
Certificate 18
Format
Await Further Instructions
starts off like an English Guess Who’s
Coming To Dinner, as Nick (Sam
Gittins) returns for the first time in
years to his parents’ home with his Indian
girlfriend Annji (Neerja Naik), where his family
subjects her to differing degrees of racism.
They plan to slip away the following morning,
only to find all doors and windows to the house
blocked from the outside, and a strange series of
instructions emanating from the TV.
It is no coincidence that this family shares
their surname, Milgram, with the man behind
a notorious social psychological experiment
in immoral compliance. The TV’s increasingly
This is the
second time
Bullock and Paulson
have shared the
screen this year.who sees it to commit suicide, Malorie has
no choice but to barricade herself in the first
house she sees – and live with people she would
otherwise never event speak to.
The film subtly brings out the existential
contradictions of the situation: the characters
are torn between the selfishness of survival and
the moral duty to maintain a humane society.
But Malorie is the most conflicted: although
she is brave and a loner, she is fair and kind.
She is also pregnant, a living embodiment
of care, if a reluctant one. Bullock excels at
portraying this conflicted woman and her
affecting performance helps make Malorie’s arc
as a mother more about opening up to love than
about conforming to a social role.
Bird Box jumps in time between the outset of
the catastrophe; five years later; and a little after
that, when Malorie and two children are going
down a tumultuous river while blindfolded.
This smart structure, teasing the audience with
the mystery of that dangerous trip, helps Bird
Box maintain a dynamic momentum. So do the
film’s gory moments: Bier’s realist approach to
the violent deaths Malorie witnesses makes the
film more gripping than most post-apocalyptic
fare and will creep under your skin.
Elena Lazic
unreasonable orders tap right into the
Milgrams’ pre-existing legacy of overbearing
patriarchy and toxic masculinity.
All at once tense family drama,
Cronenbergian horror, social satire and sci-fi
reimagining of the Nativity, this shows how
difficult it is to escape the domineering,
malevolent influence of the media, be it the
xenophobic press, poison-spewing televisions,
or even films just like this one. It is also a
dark vision of both domestic dysfunction and
national polarisation in small-minded, small-
screen Little Britain.
Anton Bitel
Kin
Midnight run
Release 26 December
Director Jonathan Baker, Josh Baker
Cast Myles Truitt, Jack Reynor,
Zoe Kravitz, James Franco
Distributor Lionsgate Home
Entertainment
Certificate 15
Format •There’s an awful lot
of potential in the debut
feature from Jonathan and Josh
Baker, as young Eli (Myles Truitt)
finds a mysterious otherworldly weapon
shortly before going on the run with his
older brother Jimmy (Jack Reynor), and
it’s easy to see how it attracted such a
strong cast.
With the exception of the gun, there’s an
emphasis on the grim and gritty, from the
family’s hard scrabble life under stern but
loving dad (Dennis Quaid) to the low-rent
thugs that are on their tail, led by a scuzzily
excellent James Franco.
The big problem is that the script doesn’t
ever really match the quality of the concept.
Once Jimmy and Eli hit the road, we’re in
incredibly familiar territory, right down to the
dancer with a heart of gold who joins them
for no reason other than they seem like nice
lads (Zoe Kravitz who deserves much, much
better in this film).
When the striking finale comes around,
it’s pretty hard to shake the feeling that this
is more of a demo reel than a film. That it is
simply a showcase for what the directors can
do on a budget.
Kin does have its moments but ultimately
this is missed opportunity.
Jonathan Hatfull