CosmicPrune Reviews

Chalet Girl (2011)

Does what it says on the tin

[7/10 · 4 January 2022]

A movie doesn't need to challenge the viewer to have merit or be enjoyable. It's quite clear what the arc of most of the characters in this film will be from very early on, but that doesn't detract from it at all. You don't watch Chalet Girl to find a new perspective on life; you watch it because you want to see a good-looking cast deliver some witty lines in some great locations, with the added bonus of some nice snowsports footage.

And that's exactly what you get. Everyone does a decent job here; the characters are likeable (except for the ones who aren't supposed to be), the dialog is amusing, and the cinematography is surprisingly good. The snowboarding scenes work well because the park stunts aren't ridiculously over the top, and the free-riding scenes are well shot and quite inspiring. It's easy to mock the rapid rise of a chalet girl novice to elite snowboarder, but it is actually not that far from the real life story of 2014 Olympic bronze medallist Jenny Jones.

I also appreciated the authenticity of the locations. Almost implausibly, the chalet is perceived as having a cute little gate opening up onto the main piste right next to the main lift station but, in fact, that is exactly how it is in reality. It feels like the production crew pitched up in St Anton and shot everything as it was, rather than trying to manufacture a fake environment with multiple locations and clever camera angles. I watched this film again recently for no other reason than I had just returned from St Anton, and it felt very real.

All in all, this is a great movie to watch if you want to sit on the sofa under a blanket and not think too hard. But be careful, you may end up booking a ski trip afterwards.

Ted Lasso: Make Rebecca Great Again (2020) Season 1, Episode 7

Watershed moment for the series

[9/10 · 8 December 2021]

When I started my free trial of Apple+ I chose to watch Ted Lasso because my son said it was the "only decent thing on there". After two episodes I certainly wasn't convinced; the premise felt patronising and the characters two-dimensional.

But it didn't take long to pick up and this episode represents its watershed, the series has now developed true depth and all the characters (except perhaps for the excruciating Jamie Tartt) are genuinely relatable. The casting is brilliant, and the appearance of Ellie Taylor as the aptly nicknamed "Sassy" most welcome.

I'd heard Ted Lasso compared to Schitt's Creek and I didn't really get it until now but, just as the Creek's characters rapidly transformed from cardboard archetypes into people you really cared about, the same has happened here. Funny, touching, and ultimately uplifting.

Peterloo (2018)

Patronising and didactic

[5/10 · 30 October 2021]

This could have been a riveting and informative movie about a seminal event in British social history, but instead it is a patronising and didactic, one-dimensional portrayal of the class struggle between the salt-of-the-earth proletariat and the cartoonish, entitled gentry in 19th century England. The film spends so long trying to get us invested us in the characters of the poor, downtrodden workers that, even with over two and a half hours of screen time, it apparently doesn't have time to enlighten us about the aftermath of the atrocity. Rory Kinnear puts in a great performance as Henry Hunt, but it would be very nice to have learned what became of him after that fateful day. Sadly it comes over as indulgent, partisan lecturing.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

Predictably unpredictable

[5/10 · 27 October 2020]

If, like me, you haven't read the book, this is a movie of two parts. The first two hours is a well-executed psychological thriller. It is relentlessly unsettling and keeps you on the edge of your seat, even during the rather drawn-out road trip scenes in which Jessie Buckley reels off reams of complex monologue with only the occasional mumbled contribution from Jesse Plemons. The weirdness ramps up several notches when they finally get to his parents' house, and the movie appears to be on exactly the kind of unhinged arc that you would expect from Charlie Kaufman.

And then there is the closing fifteen minutes. By that point I had given up any hope that the ending might explain what this movie was about, but I was still disappointed. Instead of any meaningful denouement we are treated to an incoherent morasse of interpretative dance, song, and an on-stage address from Plemons which fails to shed any light on what has gone before. I turned to my wife about half an hour from the end and said, this is the kind of film where the credits roll and you just stare at the screen and say "Oh". And it was.

I'm not sure who this film is for. I'm sure the book must make more sense than this, and assuming it does, those who have read it must feel that Kaufman has missed something out here. And if you haven't read the book, you'll have no idea what you just watched until you come on here and read the explanation posts.

Having read those explanations, I now appreciate that this a clever story, and a very clever title. The performances, especially from Buckley, are tremendous. But there was definitely some fat that could have been trimmed and by the end it just felt like Kaufman lost interest and someone else was invited to come and finish it off. With a better ending this could have been a great movie.

Carry on Columbus (1992)

Worst film I ever paid to see

[2/10 · 2 January 2018]

For twenty five years I have carried this film around as a pre-prepared answer to any question which includes the words "worst film". Of course I have seen worse films on TV at strange hours of the afternoon or early morning, but I have neither watched them in their entirety nor handed over my own hard-earned cash to see them. I reserve scores of one out of ten for some of those movies, and this one merits a score of two purely because I did manage to endure it all.

This film is a tragic waste of the talent assembed to produce it. I'm not sure whether it's the script, the editing, the direction or all three which conspired to make it so bad but it's almost an achievement in itself that so many fine comedy actors were employed in pursuit of such a lost cause.

The Carry On franchise was never intended to be thought-provoking but it's irreverence and cheekiness evoked a more innocent time which, while it may not have really been as innocent as it made out, was well and truly over by the time Columbus hit our theatres. Even with those qualities intact it would have been fairly excruciating in 1992, but it wasn't even that good. It isn't so much of an anachronism as an embarrassment and I'll bet there were a few tense conversations between actors and agents in the period following its release.

Oasis: Supersonic (2016)

Truly fascinating documentary

[8/10 · 2 January 2018]

I have never been a big fan of Oasis, considering them to be a simple rehash of old musical ideas spiced up with a heavy dose of Manchester attitude, but I found this film to be utterly compelling. It was shown on TV in the UK at 10pm when I was ready to retire to bed but my wife and I ended up glued to it and watched the whole thing.

I played in a Manchester band in the early 90s and I thought I knew everything I needed to know about Oasis but this film revealed a new perspective. Rather than the snarling, foul-mouthed oaf he is depicted as in the UK media (and by his brother) we see Liam as a far more three-dimensional character, projecting glimmers of genuine charisma and talent alongside the sweary outbursts. It's a PR job of course, but a very good one nonetheless.

And that's where the only real problem with this film lies; it is an advert for brand Oasis and it is very kind to them. The film sees us through to the peak of their fame with the massive sold-out shows at Knebworth, but we don't get any insight into the wasted opportunities and rapid decline which followed. As impressive as the band's rise was, the story arc doesn't feel complete.

I would recommend this film to anyone interested in rock music though, even if they don't particularly like Oasis. In fact, if you don't know their story already that probably just makes it all the more interesting.