Film Fight 2021: July

#FF21 Freaky is an okay body-switch horror/comedy.

Vince Vaughn absolutely nails his performance, as a teenage girl stuck in a serial killer body.

Everything else feels a bit by-numbers, and looks a little cheap.

Easy watching, but not great.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 4, 2021

#FF21 Minari is an excellent film, about struggling to better your life, and failing to communicate with your partner.

Stuffed with so many good performances, Yuen stepping out is even more of an achievement.

Beautiful, thoughtful, sad, desperate, and joyful.

A masterpiece.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 4, 2021

#FF21 The Tomorrow War is terrible.

Poor effects, generic art direction, tealy-orange grading, bad acting (except Strahovski and Simmons), muddled action sequences, no narrative coherence, cliched motivations. I could go on.

There is little redeemable here. Avoid.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 4, 2021

#FF21 Body Brokers is a decent story about the business of addiction treatment in the US; and how its not always set-up to help.

Overbearing narration aside, the film works well: good performances, clear plot, maybe a little obvious.

Worth seeing.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 11, 2021

#FF21 Honest Thief is yet another entirely forgettable bit of Liam Neeson fodder.

Clearly made on a budget, with bland action, a nonsense plot, and the constant reminder that character quirks are not characterisation.

Skip.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 11, 2021

#FF21 Black Widow is pretty uneven.

For every decent action sequence there’s one with janky editing or CG, for every good performance there’s a bad accent, funny moments meet tonal mismatches.

Plot is a mess. A mid-lower tier Marvel, for sure.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) July 11, 2021

#FF21 Clemency is a powerful look at the death penalty and the toll it takes on the humanity of all involved parties.

The lead performances from Woodard and Hodge are stunning. Direction and pacing pull you through a difficult situation.

Affecting, powerful, tragic. Must see.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) August 1, 2021

#FF21 First Cow is a fairly unique film.

Slow, and gentle; initially about friendship in a fairly uncaring frontier. It shifts slowly into something else, where risks are taken because it's the only way out.

Restrained, quiet, and intriguing. Worth seeing.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) August 1, 2021

#FF21 Gunpowder Milkshake does better than most knock-offs at capturing the essence of John Wick.

The action is decent and clearly shot, though not as polished. It's in the world building it does best, with clear stakes; all shot through with saturated neon colours.

Good.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) August 1, 2021

#FF21 The Suicide Squad is certainly an improvement on Suicide Squad.

Less dour, with some of DCs weirder characters left to be unashamedly different. Fairly funny for the most part. Some of the action works, some doesn't, and the pacing struggles towards the end.

Fine.

— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming) August 1, 2021