TeamEmpireon
the month’s
essential viewing
KNIVES OUT
OUTNOW (DOWNLOAD, DVD, BLU-RAY)
CERTM/131 MINSRian Johnson brings a Bond to a knife fight for his
lovingly crafted modern murder mystery. Daniel
Craig plays Benoit Blanc, a clean-cut detective-
for-hire with a rhythmic Southern drawl. His task:
to investigate the death of author Harlan Thrombey
(Christopher Plummer), an event his family believes
to be suspect. Through the Thrombeys, Johnson
presents a cross-section of contemporary America
with all its trolling Republicans, glossy influencers
and weed-smoking millennials, and conjures up a
glorious cast for his prickly ensemble, from Jamie
Lee Curtis to Chris Evans — here playing an
arrogant scion who wears knitwear like he’s doing
it a favour. The film’s secret weapon, however, is
star-on-the-rise Ana de Armas. Through her, we
witness a whodunit whirlwind that’s occasionally
dastardly, often delicious, and with a vomit scene
guaranteed to make you reach for a bucket.
Consider this fairwarning.BETH WEBBDOCTOR SLEEP
OUTNOW/ CERTMA15+/152 MINSIs Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep a Shining sequel?
Technically, yes. But it’s also decidedly not — more
a character-driven fantasy-horror about PTSD
that asks, what if your trauma was being the kid
in the Overlook Hotel? It’s a fi rm fi t for Flanagan,
whose fi lmography has centred on the horrors
of familial grief and cross-generational tragedy
(Oculus, The Haunting Of Hill House). His take on
the Shining-verse is slow-building but engrossing,
a fascinating left turn — with astral projection,
mind control, and a gang of psychic vampires,
the True Knot, led by Rebecca Ferguson’s
magnetic, should-be-iconic immortal Rose The
Hat. Reconciling Kubrick and King (who famously
hated Kubrick’s adaptation), Doctor Sleep becomes
its own thrilling beast — and when Flanagan fi nally
gets to unlock the Overlook doors he handles it
just right, respectful and playful in equal measure
as he revives the ultimate haunted house. Bring
on the three-hour Director’s Cut. BEN TRAVISCASINO ROYALE
OUTNOW/ CERT M / 145 MINSDoing what is essentially a James Bond: Origins
story 20 fi lms into the franchise was a ballsy
move, but Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale
distils everything we know and love about the
prolifi c British spy into a fresh, slickly entertaining
package. The intense set pieces would be high
up on any franchise’s ‘Best Of’ lists, the classic
lines are altered in delightfully unexpected
ways (“Shaken or stirred?” “Do I look like I give
a damn?” is one such highlight), and Eva Green’s
Vesper is arguably the smartest and most
complex of all Bond girls. It helps that her
chemistry with Daniel Craig is sizzling from
the superbly written train introduction onwards,
while Craig himself proves all the pre-release
doubters wrong with a raw, edgy performance
that’s as close to Ian Fleming’s Bond as this
series has come. Here’s hoping No Time
To Die ends his 007 tenure as thrillingly as
it began. AMON WARMANNTHE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM
OUTNOW/ CERTPG/92 MINS
Filmmaker John and chef Molly Chester left their
small Los Angeles apartment to turn a dried-up,
80-hectare tract of land into an organic farm,
charting their eight-year progress in this likeable
documentary. Directed by John, this doesn’t
offer much objective distance from its subject,
but it does get up close and personal with their
efforts to transform biologically dead earth into
something approaching a paradise. Although
Chester doesn’t undersell the effort involved,
the results will make you want to chuck it all
in and buy some ducks — and a pig — as the
couple bring the farm to life, and find a balance
for its inhabitants between rampaging gophers
and invading snails. At the very least, it should
give you hope that we can turn more than just
farming around by restoring live eco-systems;
we could even change the world. We just need
enough worms, and a very good dog, to inspire
us.HELEN O’HARA
FROZEN II
OUTNOW (DOWNLOAD, DVD, BLU-RAY)
CERTPG/103 MINSThe first film took the world by storm in 2013, so
the stakes had to be astronomically higher for
Frozen IIto even try to compare. Thankfully,
co-directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee build
on the smart values established by their world-
shaking wintry universe by giving princesses Elsa
and Anna much more to learn beyond their own
little kingdom. One of the main challenges
was, of course, the songs — can you really top
something like Let It Go? Luckily for the dulcet
tones of all ages, the answer was a resounding
yes.Enter Into The Unknown, Show Yourself and
Lost In The Woods — showstopping bangers all.
The ambitious plot — decrying colonialism,
hive-mind mentality and a society denying the
past — occasionally gets knotty, but with such
showmanship and another hit of generation-
defining music, it’s still pretty unforgettable.
ELLA KEMP