Author: Callum Forbes

My Kingdom is a Belgian short film about a trio of siblings. They have all come to the home of their recently passed mother to collect their belongings and relive the old memories one last time. But the longer they stay there, the more they realize what nostalgia is actually worth.

That their memories themselves are what matters and that these objects and this place are just that – objects and a place. That these will mean absolutely nothing to those who come after. So, they decide to make one more, messy and chaotic memory while they are there.

The title of the film, My Kingdom, is taken from the famous phrase ‘my kingdom for a horse’. That’s not just me speculating, the film states that at one point. The saying does have many meanings, but here it means that something insignificant could mean more than something big – how a horse could mean more than a kingdom in a battle. It is poetic and beautiful and it’s clear that My Kingdom holds this saying close to its heart.

Narratively it very well structured. The pacing is nice, slow and solemn at first. But the longer it goes on the louder and more hectic it gets. At the end, before the final breath anyway, it is a deliberate mess – much like the state of the old home. The home mirroring everything that our characters are going through.

From messy but structured, to literal paint splattered across the walls. The sound chimes in too. The start has very little music at all, even when its there it is quiet and barely noticeable. Come the end it is like being in a club. Even our characters go from whispered voices to screaming their lungs out.

I found the ending of the film to be particularly uncomfortable. I think that this is partly deliberate of the filmmakers. It is all very raw and primal – speaking of raw, there were parts of this where it visually reminded me of the cannibal/horror film Raw from a couple years ago. Namely because of the use of bright paint and the cinematography. You feel like you are seeing a bit of a break down. It’s a relief when our characters actually take a breath at the end, because that is exactly what the audience is doing. Although, this may also be partly because I don’t like clubbing – this, again, feeling like that towards the end.

It is well shot and edited, every following shot complimenting the last. You will struggle to fine a film as smoothly edited this year. The acting is on point, you buy every second of the performances through both dialogue and their actions. I wouldn’t say that I would watch it again.

But I cannot fault the craft of the filmmaking in My Kingdom. It’s a good story well told – all in less than twenty minutes. If you enjoy a good character study with some good subtext, if a little on the nose, then My Kingdom is certainly worth the viewing, even if it makes you feel uncomfortable.

QT8: The First Eight is a documentary about the works of acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino. As stated, it details the production, making and themes and releases of Tarantino’s first eight films – from Reservoir Dogs to The Hateful Eight. It is all told to us by the cast, crew and associates of Tarantino and is an interesting look into the man who immediately became a cinematic living legend.

I feel that anybody could go on about Tarantino for hours on end. To sum up my thought on the man’s work without making this an article purely about him, I have had a love hate relationship with the works of Tarantino. By which I pretty much mean I love Kill Bill and everything before it, and I have kind of hated the ones that I saw after it. Although the only ones I have seen after Kill Bill are Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight.

That is not a knock on their quality – they are all masterpiece in one way or another – but something about them either offended me or failed to hold my interest. I do, however, credit him as one of the last true filmmakers. When you think of a director who only makes what he wants, casts who he wants, works with who he wants, has a tremendous talent and whose name alone brings in the crowd, these days it appears to be only Tarantino with that kind of power. For that he has my respect.

QT8 truly acts as a window into his work. The film is almost entirely interview based. Nine out of ten of the big actors who have worked under Tarantino are present here, telling us what it is like to work for him – both the good and the bad. It is remarkable that, despite how strict he is and the pressure that had been put on these actors, that they have little but good to say about him.

These are people like Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russel, Christophe Waltz, Jamie Fox and Tim Roth – huge, respected and prestigious, and all taking the time to talk about what an experience it was to work with him. It was also nice to see the late Robert Forster again. 

The only break we get from these interviews are clips from the films themselves and some nice animated sequences to display what is being said. These two elements make the documentary itself feel very much like a homage to Tarantino – taking just a little bit of his style to show us more of him, as opposed to just telling us about him. As such it carries across the most poignant, thought-provoking moments as effectively as the black comedy. Just like with Tarantino’s films, it’s fun, hilarious, thought-provoking, and at times scary – especially the brief segment looking at Harvey Weinstein.

It’s good and slick. It honestly doesn’t feel as long as it is, and I could’ve watched it all day long. It’s less a look at the man and more of his work and just how important that work is to film. It’s honestly hard to disagree. It told me things that I didn’t know myself – such as most of the production of Reservoir Dogs, which is already my favorite Tarantino film – that made me respect the work and the man himself just that little more.

He’s a lover of film and that’s what got him to where he is – cinema could honestly use more of that. QT8 was refreshing, fun and had me hooked from beginning to end. Comparing that to the man it is talking about, I can’t think of any higher praise than that.

Doctor Sleep: Another Look. Stephen King adaptations have been very hit or miss over the past few decades. Well, mostly misses, let’s be honest. It feels like for every Shawshank Redemption, Misery and It, there are at least five Cell, Maximum Overdrive and It Chapter 2 equivalents. For me, one that always stood out was The Shining. Made by Stanley Kubrick, the film is an exercise in dread. These days it’s simultaneously too boring for some, and too silly for some others. But it still works as a satisfyingly chilly ghost story, with some fantastic imagery, tight direction and wonderful performances. Although, Stephen King would disagree with me there.

When it was announced that Doctor Sleep, a sequel novel to The Shining novel, I was very skeptical. Director Mike Flanagan had a very unenviable task ahead of him. He had to adapt a book by King and follow on from Kubrick. Not only that but some of the books fans, including King himself, hated Kubrick’s treatment of the source material – particularly how it ignores many of the stories themes of abuse and alcoholism. While at the same time fans of the film (myself included) hated King’s book and thought that Kubrick brought some life to a dull story with decent ideas. All of these people, Flanagan had to please. He has a strong filmography behind him – Oculus, The Haunting of Hill House and Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game to name a few – but could this be the one to finally stump him?

The film follows Danny Torrence, the little kid from the original, all grown up and mentally scarred by what had happened with his father and the Overlook Hotel. He now works at a hospice, where he uses his ‘shining’ to comfort the patients – particularly the ones about to die, earning him the name Doctor Sleep. Abra is a young girl with similar powers, and the two share a psychic bond. Unfortunately, her powers attract the attention of a group of vampiric beings, led by Rose the Hat, who feed off of the lifeforce of people with the ability to ‘shine’. A reluctant Danny must help Abra, keep her safe and protect her from Rose the Hat. And I don’t think that it’s a spoiler to say that it will all bring them back to the dreaded Overlook Hotel.

So, speaking as someone who has seen The Shining and loved it, read the book and hated it, and not read the book for Doctor Sleep…I loved this film!

The performances are pretty spectacular – the best of the year outside of Joker. Ewan McGregor, who I have always enjoyed (Star Wars prequels not withstanding), gives us one of his best performances in years. The first half of this film, he reminded me of his role in Trainspotting. He’s a chameleon, able to hide in whatever performance he delivers. The exact same can be said for the impeccably cast Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat. It has been a while since I saw a villain this compelling and terrifying. And, not to undermine the excellent writing, but I don’t think these two could be played by anyone else. They are that suited to their roles in this story. Not to mention, this film has one of the best child performances I’m inclined to say I have ever seen. I look forward to seeing Kyliegh Curran in more.

Flanagan’s grip is tight on Doctor Sleep. It is slow and it is meandering at times, but only in the same way that Shawshank was. Scenes may feel like they don’t much matter, but they don’t have to – we are seeing our character’s act like people when that is all that was required of them. There is this perception that every scene has to advance the story – that isn’t true, not if it makes us understand and relate to the characters more than if the plot was moving along. I have heard that he sticks to the book this time, but his direction is still Kubrickian in nature.

If you are here for references to The Shining, then you won’t find many until the end. Admittedly we do go a bit overboard with the visual ques and references to the original classic – but at that point the film has more than earned it. We are invested in the story. We love the characters and are hooked on them. We have already sat through two hours of original storytelling. We have earned little ‘remember this’ moments. It isn’t unnecessary either or is just smartly played. Not to spoil, but there is a scene with a hero and a villain talking while going up a certain flight of stairs – and it is shot, and the actors move the same way as the classic ‘give me the bat’ scene.

As for issues, I have only a handful. There’s a subplot with a cat that doesn’t really go anywhere. I don’t know if that’s the same in the book. It was nice, in a morbid way, and maybe it didn’t require closure, but it did feel odd. We also have many look-alikes for the returning characters from the original. I prefer this far more than that CGI de-aging that’s been going on a lot lately. But I would have liked it a bit more if these look-alikes, well, looked like the original actors. It was more than a bit distracting. Particularly one towards the end.

Doctor Sleep is everything I want from a King adaptation. It is dark, at times cruel, but has a lot of heart and is just fun. You can find many themes to latch onto, including abuse and alcoholism, and the film is far deeper than first impressions will tell. It’s never outright scary, but its dread rarely ceases. Nobody jumps out of a cupboard with a scary mask and shouts boo. But you do feel that every step a character takes might well be landing them in a trap – a very different kind of terror. Horrific but never gruesome. Funny but never taking from the tension.

Doctor Sleep might be the best film that Flanagan has ever done. It is certainly one of the best King adaptations ever made.