Author: Natalie Teasdale

I want to share with other movie fans those amazing films that get under your skin and stay with you for days: the scary ones, the funny ones; the ones that get you thinking. With a background in creative writing, photography, psychology and neuroscience, I’ll be focusing on dialogue, what makes a great story, if the film has beautiful creative cinematography, the soundtrack and any movie that successfully scratches the surface of our existence. My aim is to always be searching for that ultimate movie, to share what I’ve found to be interesting (whether it be a great soundtrack, a great director or links to other information of interest) and to give an honest review without too much fluff. BAppSci in Psychology/Psychophysiology; Grad Dip Creative Arts and Post Grad Dip in Creative Writing. Founder of GoMovieReviews.

The Hummingbird Project

Rated: MThe Hummingbird Project

Directed by: Kim Nguyen

Written by: Kim Nguyen

Produced by: Pierre Even, Jérôme de Béthune, Fabrice Delville, Alian-Gilles Viellevoye

Starring: Salma Hayek, Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skarsgård.

The film is named, The Hummingbird Project because the beat of a hummingbird’s wing takes less than sixteen milliseconds – the time barrier Vincent Zaleski (Jesse Eisenberg) and cousin Anton Zaleski (Alexander Skarsgård) want to break by building a fibre line from the Kansas City Internet Exchange to the New York Stock Exchange.

If they can transfer data faster than the sixteen-millisecond barrier, they can trade faster than anyone else, making millions, even billions of dollars.

The only problem is that the line needs financial backing and the line needs to be built straight one thousand miles: under 10,000 private properties, under rivers, even through a mountain made of granite located in a protected state forest.

The project is a massive undertaking with all the issues that go along with making the seemingly impossible, possible by throwing millions of dollars and brain power at any obstacle.  Including ex-boss, Wall Street CEO, Eva Torres (Salma Hayek) who doesn’t like betrayal (the cousins quitting and taking their idea with them) from Anton, the technical genius she cared for, who’s obviously on the spectrum and Vince, the cousin she hired so Anton could have a pet.

She has her own project.

Vince and Anton must beat their vengeful ex-boss and her line of microwave towers otherwise the fibre line becomes pointless.

It’s a David and Goliath fight to the finish with pipeline engineer Mark Vega (Michael Mando) asking Vince, ‘We’re David?’  To him it sounds like Goliath against Goliath.

The film is based on the true story Michael Lewis published, Flash Boys (2014): the fight between Spread Networks, which built an 827-mile fibre cable from Chicago to New York, and a line of microwave towers.

An idea so crazy it’s got to be true (as they say).

There’s something satisfying in seeing a large project come together – the technically savvy Anton great fun to watch; he’s the genius coder who just wants to buy a country house for his family to get away from people, AKA ‘morons’.

Alexander Skarsgård shows his versatility in the role of a receding programming nerd, the character’s single-mindedness, hilarious – although the dance scene I’m pretty sure was a copy of Tom Cruise in his role as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder (2008).

All the roles were well-cast, Salma Hayek showing real bite as the powerful CEO and financial guru – she’s just as good at her job as the geniuses she hires to work for her.

And there’s more to the story than data transfer, problem solving and making money – this is a life-defining project for Vince.  This is about the mystery of life and what he’ll find at the end.

I enjoyed watching this film on many levels.  And it looks good on the big screen, with falling snow, frozen in time; walking over a forest of pine trees like they’re moss covering the ground as thought rises above the project of building this line and seeing the idea and drive to finish as more than the project itself.

An intelligent film with a bit humanity thrown in the mix.

The Chaperone

Rated: PGThe Chaperone

Directed by: Michael Engler

Script Written by: Julian Fellowes

Based on the Novel by: Laura Moriarty

Produced by: Greg Clark, Victoria Hill, Luca Scalisi, Rose Ganguzza, Kelly Carmichael, Greg Hamilton

Starring: Elizabeth McGovern, Haley Lu Richardson, Géza Röhrig, Campbell Scott, Victoria Hill, Miranda Otto, Robert Fairchild, Matt McGrath, Blythe Danner, Jayne Houdyshell and Jonathan Walker.

‘What do you want to be Louise?’

‘To be the best dancer in the world.’

The Chaperone explores the story of the silent film super-star, Louise Brooks.

I think just about everyone would recognise her flapper style and short dark bob.

After her dancing and acting career faded and failed, Louise Brooks disappeared from the spotlight, only to re-invent herself and remerge as the best-selling author of her biography, Lulu in Hollywood (1982).

She writes of her life in New York, mentioning a middle-aged chaperone who escorted her when she first arrived.

No-one knows who this chaperone was.

Laura Moriarty has written a novel exploring the idea of the character, The Chaperone.  And a script was written, reuniting the director, writer and star from the multi-award winning TV series, Downton Abby.

Set in the 1920s, we see Louise as a young girl living in Wichita, Kansas.

At fifteen, Louise is accepted into a dance academy in New York.

Her mother (Victoria Hill) too busy with her own pursuits doesn’t have time to take her.

And young girl can’t go to New York on her own.

When Norma (Elizabeth McGovern) sees Louise dance after over-hearing the need of a chaperone, she volunteers.

The main focus of the film is on Norma – her escape from a stale marriage and her need to find her birth mother: ‘I love you, I really do,’ her husband tells her as she leaves.  ‘That’s nice,’ she replies.

Norma was an orphan.  And the orphanage she grew up in is in New York, unfortunately named: The New York Home for Friendless Girls.

Haley Lu Richardson as Louise is full of life and rebellion and fun, whereas Elizabeth McGovern as Norma plays the prudish and sincere lady.  This contrast between the two is where the film develops – the life lessons learned from the other as each character struggles to find themselves.

What I found difficult to digest was Norma trying to deviate from her character, to be seductive, even if it was fake.

The romance between the chaperone and German immigrant, Joseph (Géza Röhrig) felt forced and strained.  Much like the attempt to introduce the need of forward-thinking regarding issues of racism and homosexuality

What I enjoyed was seeing Louise dance and her struggles to be independent.  And although, annoying and precocious, there’s something exciting about the gifted girl that made me want to know more.

Instead, we get the struggles of the chaperone and the lessons she learns from the young and free dancer.

Which didn’t make a bad film – although, that seduction scene was pretty bad – but more a period drama.  And like Louise says, ‘I don’t like historical novels.’

And I don’t like watered-down versions of an imagined biography.

Gloria Bell

Rated: MGloria Bell

Director: Sebastián Lelio

Story by: Gonzalo Maza

Screenplay by: Alice Johnson Boher, Sebastián Lelio

Produced by: Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Sebastián Lello

Starring: Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Michael Cera, Brad Garrett, Sean Astin, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Rita Wilson.

‘When the world ends, I hope I go down dancing.’

Gloria Bell (Juilanne Moore) is divorced with two grown children, Peter (Michael Cera) and Anne (Caren Pistorius).

She likes to go out dancing, disco dancing; she sings while driving her car; she worries about her son and grandchild, left by a partner who’s gone to find herself.

Everyone around her is struggling with something in their lives: work-buddy Melinda (Barbara Sukowa) realising she hasn’t saved enough money to retire, an upstairs neighbour having a breakdown, yelling incoherently.  But Gloria dances.

When she meets Arnold (John Turturro) he asks her, ‘Are you always this happy?’  And she smiles because she likes him.

It’s a later-in-life romance with all the baggage that goes with it.

Arnold is the perfect part for John Turturro, those soulful eyes drawing Gloria in.

And Julian Moore surprises with her candour in her role as Julia – I’ve never seen her in a part with nudity.

The nudity of Gloria counts, to add to her exposure; her vulnerability.

There’s authenticity in the frailty and strength of Gloria, making her choices relatable.

I loved seeing her little rebellions – the drinking, the smoking; the risk.  These are the moments that humanise the ex-wife and mother into an individual trying to make something for herself in life.

Gloria Bell isn’t one of those rom-com, uplifting romance films. This is a realistic portrayal of a beautiful, middle-aged woman that left me with an overriding feeling of sadness.

Sure, the soundtrack was all about the 80s and disco music like Gloria (Laura Branigan) and Total Eclipse of the Heart (Bonnie Tyler).  But it was Gloria’s son playing the Prelude in D Minor by J. S. Bach that set the tone.

Life is tough.  Love is hard.  People are hard.  But we keep going.

Gloria keeps going.

She keeps being true to herself even if it means giving into that quiet desperation.  She accepts it and struggles through.

That’s what makes the film so sad.

Thunder Road

Rated: MThunder Road

Directed and Created by: Jim Cummings

Based on the Short Film: ‘Thunder Road’ (2016)

Produced by: Natalie Metzger, Zack Parker, Benjamin Wiessner

Starring: Jim Cummings, Kendal Farr, Nican Robinson, Macon Blair, Jocelyn DeBoer, Chelsea Edmunson Ammie Leonards and Bill Wise.

Thunder Road, named after the Bruce Springsteen song, is a character-driven film about a dishevelled cop (with mustache) falling apart.

Officer Jim Arnaud is an awkward guy, especially around normal people, like sitting around the dinner table with the family of his partner, Officer Nate Lewis (Nican Robinson), telling embarrassing stories without realising he shouldn’t be telling his partner’s family about his miscalculations; he doesn’t act any more normal at his mother’s funeral, or at parent-teacher meetings about his daughter, Crystal (Kendal Farr).

It’s in these awkward moments we get to know Jim, as he gives a eulogy at his mother’s funeral, about how she donated money so the nasty Down Syndrome girl at his school could play safely, like the other kids.  The nasty girl was a biter, you see.  And may not have had Down Syndrome.

Thunder Road isn’t a flashy film – there’s nothing clever about the camera shots or setting.  This is all about the script and delivery from director, writer and star Jim Cummings.

The facial expressions of this guy are hilarious.  Seeing those waves of emotion take over his face, then to see him pull it together only to lose it again.  It’s seeing this super-nice guy, doing his absolute best in the worst of circumstances, then just lose his grip that tickles: standing, about to throw a child’s school desk, the teacher subtly pocketing the school safety-scissors included.

His mother is dead, his siblings don’t show at the funeral, his wife has left him, his daughter can’t stand him and is acting out, making statements like, ‘I hope I get mum’s boobs.’  And his job as a cop is emotionally draining and stressful.

His life is eating him alive.

But Jim continues to try to do the right thing only to end up with ripped pants.

Don’t get me wrong, the humour here is subtle – like the way Jim is described, ‘Everyone grieves differently.  Everyone’s unique.’

You can just see it – how the nice people describe someone losing the plot at a funeral.

I’m still giggling.

Yet there’s a real sweet, heart-warmer here as well.  A dad doing his absolute best for his kid.  And seeing a friend helping out a buddy who just can’t get it right warms the cockles.

A refreshing take on how life just is sometimes with an extraordinary script serving up the heart of a character with perfect delivery: pure gold.

The Curse of the Weeping Woman

Rated: MThe Curse of the Weeping Woman

Directed by: Michael Chaves

Written by: Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis

Produced by: James Wan, Gary Dauberman and Emile Gladstone

Starring: Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, Patricia Velasquez, Marisol Ramirez, Sean Patrick Thomas, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen and Roman Christou.

Based on the Hispanic folk tale of La Llorona, The Weeping Woman, the film begins where the curse began – the 1600s, Mexico.

Llorona, famed for her beauty, catches the eye of a rich man who rides into her small village.  Marrying the man of her dreams, she bares two children.  The folk tale describes Llorona flying into a jealous rage when she finds her husband in the arms of a younger woman; her revenge, to kill those he prizes the most.  His children.

She drowns his children.  But when she realises what she’s done, guilt consumes her so she throws herself in the same waters, to drown.  But her spirit remains to haunt, looking for children to replace the ones she has lost.

The film starts scary, with some surprising, brutal moments and angled camera shots that tilt the view through the eyes of the spirit, Llorona (Marisol Ramirez).

Yet as the film progresses, those creaking doors start to lose effect.

In present day Los Angeles, 1973, Anna Garcia (Linda Cardellini) lives as a single mum with two kids, Chris (Roman Christou) and Samantha (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen).

Working as a social worker, she struggles to balance life, to spend enough time with her kids and to take care of everything on her own.

But it’s a happy family.

Until, visiting Patricia (Patricia Valásquez), a client she knows through work, where she finds children locked behind a closet door covered in drawn eyes.

Thinking she’s saving the children, Anna unwittingly catches the attention of the Weeping Woman.  A spirit determined to drown her children.

It all sounds like a good scary story.  But l lost focus along the way with moments that left me wondering, how does a baseball bat scare off a spirit?

And social workers don’t investigate other colleagues when it comes their children’s welfare.  Well, not officially.

Then along comes the ex-priest – not the one still with the church who loses all credibility when mentioning his dealings with the evil possessed doll, Annabelle.  But the faith healer, Rafael Olvera (Raymond Cruz).

I just could not take him seriously.  And neither could the Garcia family he’s trying to save when he gets them to rub intact eggs along the frames of doorways.

It was like the director realised the film was turning from horror to ridiculous and then used an incredibly dry humour to lift the film from drowning in a wash of boredom.

The film becomes borderline silly with lace and doe-eyed moments stated in dialogue like, ‘She’s come to drown us.’

I felt pretty water-logged.

But then I realised the irony of the faith healer’s humour against the murderous crazy spirit who drowns kids.

Overall, a lost opportunity that turned a horror movie into, something else.

Crime Wave (Ola De Crimenes)

Directed by: Gracia QuerejetaCrime Wave (Ola De Crimenes)

Written by: Luis Marίas

Starring: Maribel Verdú, Juana Acosta, Paula Echevarrίa, Luis Tosar, Asier Rikarte, Miguel Bernardeau and Raúl Arévalo.

Opening in a confessional, with Leyre (Maribel Verdú) attempting to explain to the priest her sins, Leyre asks the priest for reassurance, wanting to make sure of the sanctity of the confession, that her sins would not be passed on to anyone but God.

‘Honey, this isn’t twitter,’ the priest replies, setting the tone of the film.

A thriller and comedy is a strange mix and just asking for the ridiculous.

And the main character, Leyre, ex-wife to murdered husband and mother to sociopathic son, Asier (Asier Rikarte) who murders his father with a pair of scissors, is a ridiculous character: tripping over her high-heels and cleavage on show with every outfit.  I found myself gritting my teeth at the ditzy behaviour.

Leyre attempts to cover-up the murder of her husband while her odd son is unable to absorb the seriousness of the crime, being a sociopath and all.  She runs around like a neurotic that in turn, causes a crime wave across the city of Bilbao.

To try to blend the different styles of story, the comedy with the crime, the soundtrack is used to spark that recognition of detective, who-done-it movies, with brass raunchy outbursts (a little like the character, Leyre).  Then we get classical for the son; the best music in the soundtrack for the entire film.  But mostly, it’s that sleezy music that works as a devise for change of tone but didn’t absorb me into the film because it felt like it was trying too hard.

But there’s some clever here with some genuinely funny moments that I just haven’t seen anywhere else: Vanessa (Paula Echevarrίa) the current wife of the murdered husband, manages to include her hiccups into the manipulation of a conversation by explaining they’re a reminder from the dead husband because he used to always hiccup.

And the tape playing English lessons in the taxi as Leyre convinces the taxi driver (Raúl Arévalo) to help her establish an alibi saying, ‘I’m mad.  I’m mad,’ Yes, the taxi driver is a little mad!

There are many moments of the highly amusing including the infatuation of lover boy (and Asier’s only friend), Julen (Miguel Bernardeau), with Leyre – constantly blowing his load while professing his undying love…

And the pace doesn’t let up.

We get the murder of douche bag husband, the coverup, the current wife in dodgy business with corrupt lawyer, Susana (Juana Acosta), the detectives investigating the crime with their own headaches in life and the taxi-driver / bad actor tricked into a false alibi.  It’s nuts!

Of course it’s nuts.  But also, a little brilliant.

Hellboy

Rated: R18+Hellboy

Directed by: Neil Marshall

Screenplay by: Andrew Cosby

Based on: the Dark Horse Comic Book, “Hellboy” Created by Mike Mignola

Produced by: Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, Mike Richardson, Philip Westgren, Carl Hampe, Matt O’Toole, Les Weldon, Yariv Lerner

Starring: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane and Daniel Dae Kim.

This is the third instalment of Hellboy, a franchise based on the comics created by Mike Mignola.

Here, we have a new Hellboy and before the screening, I wondered how David Harbour (known for his starring role as Police Chief Jim Hopper on the hit Netflix series “Stranger Things”) was going to fill the iconic role previously played by Ron Perlman.

Without issue, we get that same dry delivery of one-liners like, ‘Hellboy?  No, it’s Josh.  People mix us up all the time.’  He says, drool rolling out his drunken mouth.

What I’ve always enjoyed about the Hellboy films are the incredible effects.  This re-boot is all what the previous films delivered, and more.

Opening on a scene of black and white, we’re introduced to the appropriately named Nimue, The Blood Queen (Milla Jovovich), her red cape the only colour to be seen in the foreground of an ancient tree.

This splash of red is a good indicator of what’s to come – when I say bloody, I mean that visceral, bloody flying through the air with bits of brain and bone, the marrow of people sucked out by giants, limbs torn off monks by a pigman and children eaten by witches.

Hellboy number three is rated R for a reason.

So yes, it’s gory.  But jez, it really is a LOT of fun.

This is a story of Hellboy’s true nature, and why he was brought into this world.

He’s never fit in, looking like the devil himself.  Breaking off his horns doesn’t hide his demonic appearance.  Hellboy admits his, ‘Therapist says I rely on jokes to normalise.’

This is his weakness.  He’s a monster living in a world of people who hate and kill monsters.  And have hunted monsters for centuries.

You can only have people try to kill you so many times before it gets personal.

The Blood Queen understands this.  She’s a monster too.

Bringing Hellboy to her side, to become King would mean the end of the world: the apocalypse.

Starting again, to re-build Eve together; to bring the monsters out of the shadows, doesn’t sound so bad.

So does Hellboy give in to his true nature?  Or does he side with the ones he loves, his adopted father, Professor Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm (Ian McShane) and friend Alice Monaghan (Sasha Lane), whose life he saved when she was a baby?

The script is a collaboration between the creator Mignola and Andrew Cosby.

“It was important for us, and for the fans as well, to really stick to the roots and origins of Hellboy,” says producer Les Weldon. “No one wants somebody else’s Hellboy — they want Mike’s…”

And it’s one hell of a ride with non-stop action as giants and demons and witches and humans are fought with constant asides from Hellboy to break the, at times, intense tension and scary bits.

There’re monsters that reminded me of the demons from Hellraiser.

Talking of monster’s, we also get the character B.P.R.D. Team commander Major Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim) adding another dimension to the film.  He’s a conflicted ex-soldier-turned-agent also from the Mignolaverse but has never been on the same page as Hellboy.

So bloody and scary, yes.  But then we’ll get Hellboy asking how a terrifying, one-eyed, wooden-legged witch can have hair on her tongue.

And a moth escaping from a cave, deep underground, rising, into the air, high above, only to be eaten by a raven.

We smoothly segue from one entertaining scene to the next that’s both visually stunning and brutally absorbing.

A worthy re-boot that blurs the line between horror and action.

Little

Rated: PGLITTLE

Directed by: Tina Gordon

Screenplay Written by: Tracy Oliver and Tina Gordon

Story by: Tracy Oliver

Produced by: Will Packer, p.g.a, Kenya Barris and James Lopez, p.g.a

Starring: Regina Hall, Issa Rae, Tone Bell, Mikey Day, Marsai Martin, JD McCrary, Thalia Tran, Tucker Meek, Luke James and Rachel Dratch.

When Jordan Sanders (Regina Hall) showed-off her scientific talent in front of an audience of pre-teens only for the bully of the school to ruin her moment, her parents tell her (as they push her with a braced neck and plastered arm in a wheelchair) not to worry because when she gets big, smart kids become the boss.  And no-one bully’s the boss.

Taking this predication as gospel, she becomes a rich tech CEO, running her company, JS Innovations with a be-jewelled iron fist.

She doesn’t care if her staff hate her.  As long as they get the job done.

So when her slippers aren’t precisely 53 cm from the edge of her bed, so her feet fall on the feathered fluffy numbers she calls slippers, it’s hell to pay.  And hell to be paid by her assistant, April (Issa Rae).

No wonder April’s listening to self-help audio books with titles, ‘So You Want To Slap Your Boss.’

When Jordan finally crosses the line, calling out the young daughter of the food truck owner who sells donuts outside her company, the young girl waves her magic plastic wand, wishing the mean boss lady was little.

It’s a classic body-swap of a 38-year-old adult to a 13-year-old, pre-teen.  Only this time, it’s the black girls calling the shots.

Look, I wasn’t really expecting much with this film, maybe a bit of a giggle on a rainy night.  And there were some giggles like the term, BMW: Black Mamma Whooping.

But the story felt disjointed, like it couldn’t quite decide whether to be a girls-night-out comedy or a pre-teen kid, feel-good movie.

The editing didn’t help with the funniest moments spliced in like an after-thought, just to inject some humour in the mix.

There’s a strong performance from new-comer, Marsai Martin as Little Jordan Sanders.  Marsai pitched the idea when she noticed a cultural gap in these body-swap comedies we’ve all seen before: “There weren’t a lot of little black girls with glasses that looked like me on TV or in movies, so I just wanted to create something where you see more of myself and what you look like.”

She wanted one of those funny movies but with black characters.

And the writers make the most of this cultural difference, throwing in jokes like, ‘That only happens to white people.  Black people don’t have the time.’

But the film doesn’t dwell here, with, Jordan’s uber rich and biggest client asking, ‘Did you know there’s three dinner napkins on your back.’

‘It’s fashion,’ she explains.

She has her weaknesses.

There’s also the comment of it’s better to wake up rich and heart broken, then broke AND heart broken.

Yet, there’s not much digging here, more a focus on Jordan’s reaction to the incident in junior high, that motivated her to become a bully and get rich.

There’s a lot of praising the dollar, leading to some pretty cool outfits, nice apartment, super cool car, etc, etc…

Looking good makes you feel good – right?!

The question isn’t asked.  It’s just not that kind of movie.

Little is more about rich people having tantrums and learning life lessons like you can be yourself and succeed.  With an added BTW, money rules.

 

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Directed by: Terry GilliamThe Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Written by: Terry Gilliam and Tony Grisoni

Produced by: Mariela Besuievsky, Gerardo Herrero, Amy Gilliam, Grégoire Melin, Sébastien Delloye

Starring: Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce, Stellan Skarsgärd, Olga Kurylenko, Joana Ribeiro, Óscar Jaenada, Jason Watkins.

Thirty years in the making (and unmaking), director and writer, Terry Gilliam (The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys, Brazil, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) was determined that, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote would be made.

Based on the famous classic novel, Don Quixote (The Ingenious Gentleman Sir Quixote of La Mancha) written by Miguel de Cervantes (in two parts in 1605 and 1615), the film echoes the metafiction view, where the fiction both creates and lays bare that illusion.

Lead Toby (Adam Driver), the director of the film, ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ (that’s just one of many circles within circles here in this film of the same name), wipes the English subtitles literally from the screen, announcing they’re not required – there’s that laying bare the illusion.

Here, we have a film about making a movie about Don Quixote while combining elements of the classic novel in Tody’s present.

No wonder the script was written and re-written for thirty years.

There’s even a documentary about the difficulties of making this film, ‘This hellish adventure […] captured in great detail in the documentary feature film, Lost in La Mancha (2002),’ if you’d like to explore further.

I myself was dubious setting out on this adventure, thankful the flashbacks weren’t an attempt to hark back to the 1600s.  That would have felt pat.  Instead we have a man driven insane by Tody’s college film, yep, ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’, casting an old shoe-maker, Javier, (Jonathan Pryce), working in the small Spanish village, Los Sueños (Gallipienzo), where Toby decides to film his college project using real villages to avoid being cliché.

When Toby returns, years later, as a famous slick director, he finds the people of Los Sueños damaged after his last visit; the young and beautiful fifteen-year-old Angelica (Joana Ribeiro) broken while searching for the promise to be made a movie star, the shoe-maker cast as Don Quixote mad, with the belief he is the real, Don Quixote.

With events that range from amusing to the ridiculous (hence my initial dubious take of the film), Tody ends up in the unfortunate position of becoming the present day’s Don Quixote’s (AKA the shoe-maker) loyal squire, Sancho Panza.

This is where the movie starts to get somewhere: the slick director sitting atop a donkey, commanded by a crazy old man not afraid to hit him with a stick turns the ridiculous and amusing into outright funny.

Adam Driver as Toby bouncing off Jonathan Pryce as the mad pseudo Don Quixote make for some hilarious moments.  Only Jonathan Pryce could have pulled-off such a character, his theatre background pronouncing itself in the twinkle of a cheeky eye.

Then, as Tody gets more absorbed into his role as Sancho, the more dramatic and romantic the story as Angelica returns as the beautiful girl who needs saving from a Russian oligarch, Alexei Mishkin (Jordi Mollá) who ends up hosting a spectacular costume party in an ancient castle to celebrate Holy Week.

The setting of the film was shot in locations from Spain, Portugal and the Canary Island of Fuerteventura; ruins and castles including the Castillo de Oreja, Almonacid de Toledo and Monasterio de Piedra giving that Spanish flavour of Cervantes’ classic.

There’s also the addition of the Spanish guitar in the soundtrack and flamenco dancing with costuming that lift the film beyond the ridiculous into something more fantasy then drama or even comedy.  It’s all of it, rolled into an interpretation of the novel that mirrors Cervantes’ introduction of metafiction into the literary world, giving us that extra layer where the fiction is able to take a look at itself from the outside.

Not that the film dwells in this extra layer – this is more, a circle within a circle storyline that if you can get through the awkward moments at the beginning (Adam Driver helps here), then the reward is a film that successfully pushes the boundaries of cinematic perspective.

Shazam!

Rated: MShazam!

Directed by: David F. Sandberg

Screenplay by: Henry Gayden

Story by: Gayden and Darren Lemke

Created by: Bill Parker and C. C. Beck

Produced by: Peter Safran

Starring: Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Grace Fulton, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans and Djimon Hounsou.

From the DC Universe, writers Henry Gayden and Darren Lemke adapted Shazam! from the comics, creating a movie about a superhero, yes; but also about the superhero being a kid.

Gayden recalls, “I enjoyed writing it from the perspective of a kid, channelling the logic of a 14-year-old who suddenly has all these powers and who’s not thinking, ‘How can I save the world,’ but, ‘What cool stuff can I do?’”

We get the backstory of Billy Batson (Asher Angel)getting lost and separated from his mother at a Fair (what is it with carnivals, eh?!) and having to grow up in foster care while doing everything he can, whatever it takes, to find his mother.

We also get the backstory of super villain, Dr Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) – never being good enough for his father, always looking to his Magic 8-Ball for answers; where the ‘Outlook, not so good.’

Young Billy meets an ancient wizard (Djimon Hounsou) who’s looking for the pure of heart to relieve him of his burden, to take his power; to become the keeper of the Seven Deadly Sins: soulless depravities held captive in stone.

This is where reality meets fantasy.

One minute Billy’s on the subway; the next, he’s in the Rock of Eternity.

By speaking the name of the wizard, he inherits the power of the wizard, Shazam:

Solomon: wisdom

Hercules: strength

Atlantis: endurance

Zeus: power

Achilles: fighting

Mercury: speed.

And what fun Billy has as the adult-sized superhero, Shazam (Zachary Levi).  Until he meets his nemesis, Dr Thaddeus Sivana.

Well known horror director, David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) has shown his humorous and cheeky side with this film.  He even included the Annabelle doll lying dormant in a pawn shop at the beginning of the film – that’s cheeky.

Sandberg has kept some of that horror flavour here, with the Seven Deadly Sins coming to life as man-eating demons that not only tempt and turn human against human with their evil glowing red eyes, but physically bite their heads off.

The soundtrack adds to the ominous atmosphere, as does the disintegration of flesh into sparks to embers to ash and smoke.

What makes Shazam! so funny is the juxtaposition of this darkness with the total normality of kids being kids.

Along with the antics of Billy and Billy being Shazam, we get a household full of sidekicks: foster parents, Rosa (Marta Milans) and Victor Vasquez (Cooper Andrews) and foster kids, Darla (Faithe Herman), Mary (Grace Fulton), Eugene (Ian Chen), Pedro (Jovan Armand), and my favourite, Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer).

Freddy knows all the superhero moves and becomes Shazam’s manager, teaching him, or rather testing him, to see what super powers he has.

‘His name is, Thunder Crack!’

And added titbits like, ‘Did you know the Roman’s brushed their teeth with their urine?  It works, apparently.’

Freddy made the film for me.

As did the writing, the scary-at-times fantasy and those perfectly timed lines that lifted the film, that tickled to bursts of laughter; that kept me grinning until the very end.