The Little Hours: 3 Very Strange Nuns

The Little Hours is a period comedy film directed by Jeff Baena. The plot sees servant Massetto (Dave Franco), go on the run after he sleeps with his master’s wife. In his effort to escape he finds his way to a convent filled with some very untypical nuns. Each nun has their own plans and designs for Massetto, and he has to try and endure it all while pretending to be deaf and mute.

This is not only one of the best comedies I have seen recently but also one of the best films too. I really enjoyed this film’s quirky, manic, off kilter sense of humour it made me laugh a number of times. I thought the comedic standout of the film was defiantly Nick Offerman as Lord Bruno, the cheated-on husband, his scenes with Franco were comedic gold.

I think the best thing this film does is you never really know where it is going, one minute it seems like the nuns just want to use Massetto to aid in their sexual frustration, but then it turns into something altogether more sinister. Sister Fernanda (Aubrey Plaza), and her friend Marta (Jemima Kirke) are witches.

However, rather than feel out of place and like a random twist the reveal of the witches makes sense in the context of early events and helps to make the overall picture of the film far clearer. I also liked the ending of the film where the 3 nuns decide to start their own coven along with Massetto, I think it is yet another cool twist I didn’t see coming. I think the ending as a whole is very well done too.

My one, minor, complaint would be the first 20 minutes are quite slow. Once this film gets going it is great and you can’t look away, but the first 20 minutes and slow and a bit boring and might lead you away from the film; stick with it though.

Overall, a brilliant hidden gem of a film that I highly recommend you watch!

Pros.

The humour.

The twists.

The ending.

The performances from everyone.

Cons.

The beginning is a little slow.

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Adventures In Babysitting: One Hell Of A Bad Night

Adventures In Babysitting is a comedy adventure film directed Chris Columbus. The plot sees babysitter Chris (Elisabeth Shue), looking after three kids, however her night soon takes a turn for the extreme when she takes said kids to the city to pick up her friend. From there a series of things go wrong and things go from bad to worse; leading to a comedic misadventure.

Some much of this film rests on the performance given by Shue, if she was bad it would turn out like the god-awful Disney Channel remake, however her performance is in my opinion one of the best of the decade. Shue manages to do kind and compassionate well, you can tell her character cares about the kids, she also manages to be a lot of fun and give you a sense that she is enjoying every single second of being on screen. An example of this would be the blues singing scene, which is a masterpiece in and off itself, plus Shue is actually quite a good singer.

Fun is the word I would use to describe this film, a lot of films are funny or charming, but only a few are fun. This film almost seems like an expertly crafted series of skits that are each great and then stitched together to form one hell of a film. This can be seen with the often-hilarious pop culture themed homages, by favourite was The Warriors esque scene on the train.

Another thing I will give this film credit for is that the child actors are actually tolerable in this film. Normally when a film has child actors, hell even teens, they are annoying, they don’t perform well, they’re distracting, and you can understand why Hollywood gets 30-year olds to pretend to be teens in films. However, Brad (Keith Coogan), Daryl (Antony Rapp) and especially Sara (Maia Brewton), are not only good, but crucially loveable, you warm to them over the course of the film and by the end, you realise that you have enjoyed the time you have spent with these characters.

My one critique of the film would be that some of the humour feels dated and a little out of touch with our modern sensibilities, however on the sliding scale of 80’s offensiveness this film is pretty mild, so that shouldn’t put you off!

Overall, an 80’s classic for a good reason, effortlessly charming and watchable and a guaranteed good time for all!

Pros.

It is fun.

The homages and references.

Elisabeth Shue.

The child stars are actually tolerable.

Cons.

Some of the humour has aged poorly.

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is a musical comedy mockumentary film directed by Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. The film follows the rise and fall of pop star Conner4Real (Andy Samberg), who use to be part of a successful boyband, before deciding to go solo after a disagreement with one of his former band mates. This film makes a joke out of the rise of musical biopics and documentary films as well as the artists themselves. Conner4Real could easily be Justin Bieber or Harry Styles.

This film is hilarious and made me laugh a number of times. I love The Lonely Island and this film is basically one long music video by them, I think Andy Samberg is one of the best current comedians and this film proves it through and through.

It is also surprisingly sweet, the moment when Connor and his friends reunite and smoke a bunch of weed can’t help but make you cheer. You end up caring about the characters so much you just want them all to be friends in the end; also when Connor’s pet dies it is heart-breaking. This film is surprisingly emotional and heartfelt at times.

The musical numbers in this film are also great, the songs are funny but also surprisingly good, if you like the music of the Lonely Island then you will love the songs in this film; they’re just as catchy and just as well made as their other songs.

There are also quite a lot of surprise cameos in this film that are actually great. As this film is done in the style of a mockumentary a lot of these cameos come in the form of famous celebrates talking to the camera about this made up band. Seal is probably the best of these cameos and his scene when he fights with the wolves if comedy gold.

Overall, this is one of the best comedy films I have seen in a while and though it doesn’t always make you laugh, it keeps a smile on your face throughout.

Pros.

It is hilarious.

It is surprisingly heartfelt.

The music is great.

Andy Samberg and the others are great.

The cameos are terrific as well.

Cons.

None

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Sixteen Candles: Sickening, Wrong And Showing The Worst Of Hollywood!

Sixteen Candles is a comedy romance film by John Hughes. The plot follows ignored looked down upon teenager Samantha (Molly Ringwald), who tries to get the boy of her dreams to see her for who she really is and fall in love with her. This is one of the Brat Pack films of the 1980’s.

Before I get into this review, I just want to say don’t watch this film! It promotes harmful stereotypes every chance it gets, it encourages date rape and makes a joke out of it, even going so far as to say that it is okay because she thought she enjoyed it the next morning, it is wrong. As some people have said to me it is dumb to compare an 80s film to modern standards and that apparently there is nothing wrong with a film joking about taboo subject matter, to those people I say how is rape of a drunk barely conscious girl something to joke about? It is not PC to say that the jokes are in bad taste to say the least, it is just the truth, they’re deeply offensive and if John Hughes was still alive, I think he would have apologised for this film.

The messages of this film are rancid, the main girl gets with her dream guy at the end of the film and we are supposed to be happy about this, why should we be? The boy of her dreams blatantly didn’t care about his previous girlfriend, not only is he abusive towards her, but he also allows a group of guys to rape her when she is drunk, which again is played for laughs. So with that in mind, Samantha getting with him at the end of the film, is a sad ending, because it means she will have a terrible time and a horrible life.

This is most certainly the worst of Hughes’ films, some of his other films have issues with them such a racism and stereotyping, but none are as bad or as harmful as this film. It is sickening and the fact that it ever got made makes me lose faith in humanity. I hated it!

Pros.

Not a one.

Cons.

It has horrible messages.

It makes light of abuse and rape.

It plays a rape scene for laughs.

It normalises rape culture.

It is racist through and through as well.

0/5

Reviewed by Luke

Coffee & Kareem: Give This Film The Chair

Coffee and Kareem is an action comedy directed by Michael Dowse. The plot sees disgraced, demoted police officer James Coffee (Ed Helms), become targeted by a recently escaped gangster as well as a corrupt police force. He goes on the run with his girlfriend’s teenage son Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh): together they must stay alive and bring the guilty to justice.

This is a mess of a film, the tone of the film is family friendly, there is a large empathises placed on the relationship between Coffee and Kareem, however the humour of the film is r rated. The two don’t go together well if anything they clash horribly; it feels weirdly at war with itself.

The humour, or lack thereof, is proof of everything wrong with this film. The humour is not funny in anyway, it is painfully unfunny at best and cringey and awkward at worst. The worst offender here is Taraji P. Henson, she plays Kareem’s mother and Coffee’s girlfriend, her character is a stereotype and every time she is on screen, you’re begging her to just go away, as each line she delivers is worst than the last. The same can be said for Betty Gilpin who plays one of Coffee’s fellow police officers, she is so much more capable than this and deserves better than this.

This film tries at every turn to prove how relevant it is by constantly spouting current world events or politics. The film seems to think that this is funny, but it really isn’t, whenever the film excretes one of these lines it takes you out of the film and makes you cringe; this film will feel incredibly dated in just a few months.

More than anything else this film makes me lose any respect I ever had for Ed Helms. It is clear at this point that he is not even trying anymore, he is just taking lazy role after lazy role just for the money. He has long since stopped being funny and really should stop appearing in comedy films, as his presences indicates a bad film.

Overall, this film is the worst of the worst, it proves everything wrong with the Netflix greenlight process, and personally I think this is a career low for Ed Helms.

Pros.

It isn’t offensive.

Cons.

It is boring.

It tries too hard to be relevant.

It is not funny.

Ed Helms is terrible.

Why was this made?

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

Angus,Thongs and Perfect Snogging: The Teenage Experience?

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is a British teen rom-com directed by Gurinder Chadha, based on the novel series by Louise Rennison. The plot follows the life of Georgia Nicolson (Georgia Groome), as she tries to get a boyfriend and plan her 15^th birthday party, plenty of hijinks and misunderstandings happen along the way.

This is by no means a terrible film, it is watchable enough, though I did have a large amount of problems with the film and some of its themes and messages. Firstly 14 seems a bit young for a lot of the things these kids seem to be into, to illustrate my point, there is similar subject matter in seminal British comedy series The Inbetweeners and the characters in that are much older. I suppose the counter argument to my point would be that it isn’t as sexual as The Inbetweeners and that is true they mention intimate aspects, but not sex itself, though it is still slightly uncomfortable seeing them come out of the mouth of a 14-year-old.

Moreover, the film makes getting a partner seem like a life or death issue which I understand for some teens at that age it is, but these teens seem focused on it to an unhealthy degree. Also the way they go about getting boyfriends and the whole world these young kids seem to be in revolves around very questionable morality, like it goes beyond selfish at times to boys and girls manipulating each other to further their own aims, which is realistic in some senses I suppose, but it feels jarring when you consider what kind of film this is.

To that end, the film’s ending is as picturesque as you would expect, Georgia gets the guy, the mean girl who was cheated on and dumped at a moment’s notice is defeated and Georgia’s parents are staying together; it is all tied up in a neat little bow. To me, this happy ending doesn’t mesh with the rest of the film, towards the end of the film, Georgia is called out on a lot of the nastier things she has done and then is forced to live with the consequences of it, this is I think is good, this works. As such I think a sombre and more meditative ending would have been a better fit, conveying the films message that she has matured and risen above her childish behaviour rather than rewarding it, as it does.

Overall, this tries to be a YA film with a message, but it ends up being crushed under the weight of it’s flawed morals and feels almost a bit creepy at times.

Pros.

Some of the more grown up approaches to love.

The stuff with her parents.

Cons.

If they had been aged up by a year or two it would be less icky.

It is cliched.

The film seems to be two very different tones/messages that fundamentally don’t work together and clash badly.

2/5.

Reviewed by Luke

Book Smart: All Work And No Play

Book Smart is a comedy film directed by Olivia Wilde. The plot sees two straight A students Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein), decide to have one wild night of partying before they graduate high school. This comes as a result of the girls choosing work over partying, only to find out that their choice made no difference and was my all means futile.

I rewatched this last night and I have to say it is an exceptionally smart film, it manages to keep a lot of the sex comedy traditions alive, but also modernism them and add a feminist spin. It is interesting to see the ‘one wild night that will define the rest of their lives’ plot line from a female perspective. Much like its predecessor Blockers, this film adds to growing number of females coming of age films.

Personally, I think this film was so relatable and true, it felt realistic, well to a point, the situations the girls find themselves in aren’t that wacky and over the top as can be the case with a lot of other sex comedies. I also loved the style of the film and the way it is shot; I think Wilde has a clear eye and can do stylish very well, even her slow-motion sequences worked; which is not something I often say.

The characters are well written and deep, which again is not really something you would expect from a teen sex comedy, even the side characters prove to be more than they first appear to be; which is very nice to see. The best supporting character is easily Billie Lourd as Gigi, who is a scene stealer whenever she is on screen. The main duo are likable and relatable, Feldstein especially. Molly as a character easily has a lot of the best moments in the film.

Overall, a very strong, very honest debut for Wilde. A nice breath of fresh air in an ever-decaying sub-genre. This film deserved more love than it got.

Pros.

Smart.

Well written.

Well-rounded characters.

Funny.

It is a breath of fresh air.

Cons.

Kaitlyn Dever is the weak link.

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Super-Size Me: Ronald McDonald’s Day In Court.

Super-Size Me is a documentary film directed by and staring Morgan Spurlock. The film explores the role that fast food plays in our modern lives as well as asking what degree of responsibility the fast food/ junk food companies have in the rising tide of obese people in the world today. The answers hit hard and close to home.

Before I get into this review, I just want to say that Morgan Spurlock has admitted to a history of sexual misconduct and that Jared, the peado, from subway also makes a rather unsettling appearance, so be warned. While I was watching it, I managed to separate the art from the artists, so it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the film.

This film is fascinating because it tries to show where the line between personal responsibility ends and corporate responsibility begins. Is it McDonald’s fault there are more and more people becoming obese and suffering from things like heart disease? There is no clear answer as the film shows. However, it also exposes cultural practices that try and trick consumers and create a cycle of addiction; which isn’t the best look for Ronald and Co.

The best thing I think this film does is show you just how important the fast food industry is as well as how baked into society it is. People are conditioned to think a certain way about it and even crave it, even though it is slowly destroying their bodies. I think it is almost impossible to watch this film and not rethink eating fast-food; even if that thought is only fleeting. The film does such a good job convincing you and winning you around to its viewpoint that it is very hard to argue against.

Overall, a reverting documentary that asks a lot of hard questions about our relationship with food, highlighting what it can do to us if we are not careful. A cautionary tale for sure.

Pros.

Fascinating.

Not afraid to ask hard questions.

Or show their answers, even if they’re unpleasant.

Will have an effect on your life.

Cons.

The people involved make it off putting to a degree.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

Stan And Ollie: Going Out On Top

Stan and Ollie is a biographical comedy drama film directed by Jon S. Baird. It follows the last tour of beloved classic comedians Laurel and Hardy and details the later years of their life/ partnership. It gives us the audience a peak behind the curtain into the lives of these two funny men and it is far from singing and dancing happy. This film is as heart-breaking as it is hilarious.

I would say for sure this film is more of a drama than a comedy, there are funny moments scattered throughout, especially if you like their version of comedy, but a lot of it is sad. That is the nature of life though, especially if you’re a performer, a day will come when you have to take the curtain call one last time.

I think both actors do a great job and get you to really care about the characters. Steve Coogan sells Laurel as an almost tragic figure, still haunted by events from the past, but also a person who just wants to recapture his friendship with his best friend. John C. Riley is also incredible as Hardy, we can see the toll carrying on performing has on him, but he continues on anyway. Both men manage to capture the friendship between the two perfectly making it believable. Riley especially is a really good, really strong dramatic actor and things like this prove that he can shine outside of the comedy genre.

There is a real earnest sense of tragedy to this film that pervades it entirely, it hits you hard and it will make you feel something. It is because of this that when you get what is essentially a bittersweet ending it makes you cry and cheer, all because the film has made you care about these men.

Overall, a touching biopic about some of the best comedians of the Golden Age, Coogan and Riley show off their talents as both comedic and dramatic actors, giving damn fine performances. This film will affect you emotionally.

Pros.

Riley and Coogan

A near perfect biopic.

Touching/sweet.

The ending.

Cons.

Quite bleak at times, it might not be what you’re expecting.

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

A Long Way Down: An Anti-FeelGood Comedy

A Long Way Down is a comedy drama film directed by Pascal Chaumeil. The film is based on a novel of the same name by Nick Hornby. The plot follows four people who were all going to kill themselves on New Years Eve, but because of the arrival of the others didn’t. They then all agree to a life pact, an opposite suicide pact and agree to stay alive until Valentines Day. Through their shared pains and new-found friendships they learn to heal and find new reasons to live.

This is the sort of the film you would expect it to be, it is mushy and overly emotional, it ends with all of the characters happy and moved on from their respective issues and two of the character get together; incredibly predictably. That is my issue with this film, everything that you think will happen does. Anyone who has ever seen a similar film before could easily tell you exactly the twists and turns of this film before they even watch this. Formulaic is a word that easily describes this film.

Another thing that bothered me about this film is that considering it is a feel good, mushy film it is not all that happy. A lot of this film is the opposite of inspiring and uplifting, it is depressing. I get that the point is to show them as having nothing left to live for and then turn it around over the course of the film, but rather than do this the film feels bleak until the final 5 minutes and then you get a manic burst of happiness all at once.

Furthermore, Pierce Brosnan’s character is a peado, there is no way around it, the reason he wants to kill himself is because prior to the events of the film his character has an affair with a girl he thought was 25, but it turned out she was 15. We are told this from the off and are then expected to cheer for him and be glad he doesn’t kill himself, but you feel icky the whole time when you think about it. It feels like a needless inclusion for him to be a peado, he could have just had an affair that ruined his life, she didn’t need to be a child.

Overall, this is a feel-good film that isn’t particularly feel good, it wants you to cheer on a sex offender and it is incredibly predictable, so…….

Pros.

The cast is solid.

Cons.

It is depressing.

He is a peado.

It is predictable.

It is painfully average.

1/5