Bad Apples: Finally A Good Dark Comedy

Summary: Dark comedies are notoriously hard to do, either the film is too dark and becomes a drama or it takes things into a silly direction. This film manages to have both darker moments, the kidnapping of a child, but also make it not as depressing as that premise sounds.

The film is sometimes overtly funny and asks you to laugh at some quite messed up things, but Saoirse Ronan does a good job in being both funny but also clearly warped by what she is doing. She doesn’t turn it into just a silly goof and that’s important.

The main issue with the film is that it does not know when to end and has a habit of staying past its welcome.

Overall, a funny dark comedy film.

4/5

Ronan

It’s funny

It gets the tone right

There are some great WTF moments

Cons.

It overstays it’s welcome

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I Want Your Sex: Laughing At Victims Of Sexual Abuse

Summary: Harvey Whinstein but a woman.

So whilst there are a few funny moments in the film, and the anti woke commentary is pretty on point there is a massive glaring issue with the film.

Olivia Wilde’s character is a rapist, she records the guy without his consent, pushes him into sexual situations he doesn’t want to be in and does sexual things to him he doesn’t want. Yet at the end of the film rather than having her go to prison, the victim is shown to still be pining for her.

Once again abuse against men is turned into a joke and not a serious problem. Ask yourself if this was a film about a man doing this to a woman would it either a get made or b not be immediately cancelled.

The film is also needlessly graphic and at times it will make you deeply uncomfortable so be prepared for that.

Overall, a film that laughs at male sexual abuse.

1/5

Pros.

The anti woke commentary

Cons.

Laughing at male abuse

Having Wilde’s character get away with it

The graphic nature of it

The pacing

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Spa Weekend: Middle Age Definitely, Middle Of The Road Probably

Summary: a group of women go on a spa weekend.

The central issue with this film is that we have seen it before, a group of women who have let life takeover their friendship reconnect and achieve growth milestones. If you ignore the various male films that have had this premise, Bad Moms, Rough Night, Bridesmaid etc have all done variants of this sort of premise. As such nothing in this film feels very fresh.

Isla Fisher is probably the beating heart of this film and easily steals the show, her performance works on a number of levels and she easily out-classes the other performers with ease.

There are a few funny moments herein and a couple of laugh out loud ones but sadly they are too few and far between.

A comment on this film for its plot is, that it is starting to grow stale and trite that we can only explore the friendships of middle aged women through the lens of them being unhappy with their life, can we not see women in their prime happy and reconnecting. Likewise why in 2026 do we boil a woman down to one characteristic, we have a character here who is angry all the time and her journey is to stop being so angry that is incredibly simplistic and bad character work.

Overall, a film you have seen before

3/5.

It’s comfort viewing

It has a few funny moments

Fisher is great

Cons.

It’s reductive and reinforces cliches

It is incredibly derivative

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Coyote Vs Acme: The Looney Tunes Are Back

Summary: Wiley sues Acme for the millions of bad products they have sold him over time.

Live action animation projects often have a history of producing mixed results however, every now and then there is one that comes along that really works, Looney Tunes Back In Action was this, The Sonic movies too, and very much to its credit so is this film.

It finds a use for all of the most prominent Looney Tunes characters, except for Marvin the Martian, and Speedy Gonzales and creates a world and a story where they don’t feel forced in but like a natural part.

The story itself was very heart warming with the relationship between Will Forte’s lawyer character and Willie becoming the core of the film. The mystery of what Acme is doing is also interesting and quite deep philosophically for a kids film.

The only issue the film has is a structural issue, it makes little sense how the film wraps up, it would have made sense for Acme to be taken down during the congressional hearing. Not as the film does it immediately after Acme winning the case and only because Bugs leaked evidence, it would have made sense for Bugs to show up at the congressional hearing with the evidence as well and have Acme lose.

Overall, the best thing out of the Looney Tunes in years

4.5/5

Pros.

The world

The inter character relationships

Forte and Condor

The references and callbacks

It’s funny

Cons.

The structure of the ending

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I Love Boosters: Glamorising Theft

Summary: one Hollywood luvies take on capitalism.

Let’s get one thing clear stealing from shops doesn’t make you a modern day Robin Hood, it makes you a criminal. When you take things from shop it costs jobs and possibly even branches. You may not care as corporations are evil, but those workers still have to go home and tell their kids why they won’t eat tonight.

Boots Riley screams capitalism is evil whilst making a film, a hugely capitalist endeavour, the irony appears lost. Riley thinks encouraging audiences to steal from shops and some form of socialist fightback is a great message when it’s really not well thought through.

Of course race has to play into it as God forbid a black director make a film that is not about being black, the black experience, racism, systemic oppression, slavery or something along those lines.

The villain is a white woman who the film labels a fake feminist, she is rich and so not a comrade, also this film is a male director presenting women tearing down other women, as a purity test. There is something deeply messed up about a male director saying who is a proper feminist and who isn’t and then making it about money.

Once again we are shown at the box office that preaching doesn’t pay off, if Riley wants to go and steal from his local store that’s on him, but to waste millions of dollars trying to promote criminality is just a waste of everyone’s time and money.

Overall, morally bankrupt.

1/5

Pros.

Keke Palmer is great

Cons.

The characters are unlikable

The message is awful

It promotes criminality

It is a male director tearing down women

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Practical Magic: Lesbian Sisters

Summary: two young women navigate the world of men and love by way of magic.

So let’s get this out of the way earlier, there are a number of scenes where it looks like the two lead sisters are going to kiss and it is weird. Throughout the history of witches in horror particularly when it is not the old crone there is implied lesbianism, and sometimes that’s okay, but other times it feels like male titillation. There is nothing wrong with titillation but when the two leads are sisters it’s weird. Kidman and Bullock’s sister characters are far too close.

The film itself feels as though someone couldn’t decide on a structural level what this was supposed to be. It is based on a novel so perhaps the issues are from that. You have essentially two competing stories you have the curse placed on the Owens women where if they find love they die and you have the fact that Kidman’s character is going out with an abusive guy who they then kill and he comes back. This doesn’t just feel like a film of two halves it feels like two different films of different genres sown together. It doesn’t work as tonally it is too mismatched.

The ending of the film wherein the town that had attacked and belittled the sisters for being witches turns around and helps them out doesn’t cut the mustard. Neither does the fact that in the final sequence of the film they jump off a roof using magic to not die and not one person goes wait what witches are real.

Overall, whilst there are some moments of cozy comfort it feels like a more icky and poorly thought through relic of yesteryear.

2.5/5

Pros.

It’s watchable

Kidman and Bullock

There is charm

Cons.

It totally doesn’t work

The creepy stuff with the sisters

The ending

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One Night Only: Remember When Men Weren’t A Joke?

Summary: for one night a year sex is legal, two people try to make it work.

Owen is told at the offset of the film that his girlfriend wants to sleep with someone else, then he goes to stay at his mother’s who wants him out so she can get down. After that he is robbed by a woman who takes his clothes, when he finally meets Allie and they are about to have sex this is then denied them. Allie’s journey is far more about her coming out of her shell, daring to sing in public, ultimately to grow as a person. Notice the difference one is about empowerment the other is about humiliation.

You might have heard that a lot of the nudity and sex scenes where cut out of this film, we did a Cinema Issues about it, because audiences don’t want to see nudity unless it’s Sydney Sweeney in Gluck’s last film. For the most part this is not a steamy affair, it is oddly clinical and depressing and maybe that is a comment on modern dating but this film is supposed to be a rom-com, yet there is nothing romantic or funny about it.

Monica Barbaro does her best to keep the film together but this is really DOA on arrival.

Overall, more modern slop to avoid.

1/5

Pros

Barbaro

Cons

It is dull

It doesn’t have anything fresh to say

The male humiliation

The ending is cheap

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Ride Or Die Season 1 Overview: Amazon Keeps On Burning Money

Summary: two older ladies have their unlikely friendship rocked when one of them reveals they are an assassin.

Where to begin with why this doesn’t work, do we even need to say why the physicality of Waddingham makes the idea she is beating the snot out of dudes incredibly unlikely.

The usual places are saying this is wonderful for featuring older women representation, we’d say who is asking to see more action properties starring 50+ year old women? The counter argument of course is this is a comedy-action series. However, you wouldn’t know that from watching it the comedy doesn’t just not land it is outright painful.

The chemistry between Spencer and Waddingham also feels like two people forced to spend time together rather than two old friends, that doesn’t get better as the show progresses it remains immovable.

Overall, you seriously question why the studio head at Amazon Prime has a job left.

0.5/5

Pros.

It is once or twice unintentionally hilarious

Cons.

The comedy is DOA

Waddingham and Spencer have no chemistry

No one asked for this

It is dull and predictable

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Cinema Issues: The Demonisation Of The Nuclear Family

When leaving Olivia Wilde’s latest film the Invite a thought occurred, why is it we have so many films showing the death of love or of families but so few these days showing love and happiness.

Could it be the idea that a lot of people in Hollywood are unhappy in their relationships and so reflect that on the big screen perhaps. However, there is also an underlying cynicism that suggests that there is something problematic about straight couples getting together in 2026 and that the nuclear family is a tool for oppression. Hence you see far less of it, to show a woman happy within a nuclear family unit is to suggest that it isn’t the toxic, freedom stealing experience characters such as Sherlock Holmes in Enola Holmes 3 say it is.

You also have the open promotion of alternative lifestyles where people are shown as happier because they aren’t married. This can be seen in the Invite with the promotion of swinging culture, many modern films have suggested having multiple partners or having meaningless hook ups with no commitments is the only way to be happy, looking at you Splitizville. This reflects the cynicism we have been talking about rather than believing in love and commitment and loyalty, these are all seen as tools of oppression, the only way Hollywood thinks they can be free is to pursue their own meaningless self pleasure from meaningless sex where they can throw the person away at the end.

Look at Charlize Theron who in a Call Her Daddy episode said that she is glad she isn’t married as she could have sex with a man half her age. This is just as problematic as Leonardo DiCaprio throwing away girls when they get too old for him in their early twenties.

The cynicism we have talked about is a reflection of the deeply jaded, perverse nature of Hollywood’s ideas on sex but also the rejection of the love story, in its most traditional form as they view it as oppressive

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The Invite: A Lonely Woman’s Take On Marriage

Summary: an unhappily married couple are swayed into the swinging lifestyle

So of course Olivia Wilde a woman who ran out of a relationship to get with a much younger man, is going to tell you being in a long term monogamous relationship makes you unhappy.

Of course she is going to fetishize swinging and act like the swinging couple has a great relationship, when in fact it is an unethical therapist, Cruz, taking advantage of a man who lost his wife, Norton.

The film ends with the monogamous couple looking at slipping up, because of course they would be happier single.

The central characters are incredibly irritating and unlikeable and a collection of some of the worst modern cliches and neurosis.

The cringe comedy does manage to get a laugh from you before the loveless husk of a marriage manages becomes too much to bare and sucks all the joy from the room.

Overall, a depressing experience.

1.5/5

Pros

A few funny jokes

Okay pacing

Cons.

Deeply unlikeable characters

Yet more monogamy bad nonsense

Hollywood’s sheer lack of morals

It’s depressing

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