Author: Rosalynn Try-Hane

All Is Vanity is the debut film written and directed by Marcos Mereles that tries too hard and doesn’t quite succeed in delivering the surreal and absurd film he was attempting to make.

Bitter photgrapher (Sid Phoenix), his intern (Yaseen Aroussi), make up artist (Rosie Steel) and model (Isabelle Bonfrer) are in a London warehouse for a photoshoot. Despite the tensions, they are all gathered to work together until one of them disappears and then the fun really begins.

It feels as if Mereles is trying to make a surreal, whodunit, social commentary on the banality and vanity of the fashion world. That’s fine except it is too big a subject matter for this relatively short film at 72 minutes. It is littered with biblical references that at times feel lost in the story that Mereles is trying to tell. Whilst the dialogue is grounded in realism, it feels more theatrical and out of sorts in this film. It is supposed to be absurd and boundary pushing but it doesn’t quite get there and that is not through lack of trying.

Having said all of that, the cinematography is excellent and the direction is assured. It is just the script that needs a lot more work, less would have certainly been more. Had there been a lighter touch with the script, the more complex elements Mereles was trying to achieve might have been given room to breathe and easier to grasp.

UK & Ireland theatrical and digital release date is 14 October 2022.

Tech To The Future is a fascinating short factual film looking at new technologies that are coming onto the market that will enhance and thrill our everyday lives.

Tech To The Future is a 15 minutes and 33 second teaser short film. During the post screening Q&A, the director Sandro Monetti said the hope was to develop Tech To The Future into a television series that would focus on tech in different fields eg space, medicine etc.

Tech To The Future certainly touched on some very interesting technology that is being developed such as Aeromobil, a company that has created a flying car. However, the most fascinating was the technology that is already being used by Deepcake. It allows actors to licence the digital rights of their image to the company. In turn, the company can then use these images to make adverts and possibly films.

Given that Tech To The Future was only a short film, there wasn’t enough time to get into the ethics behind this. However, Bruce Willis is the first actor to licence his digital image. The company used an actor with the same physical measurements as Bruce and then created an advert.

It meant that Bruce Willis was paid for an advert without having to leave the comfort of his home. It will be interesting to see how this technology is used in the future.

Watch this space…

Don’t Worry Darling is visually stunning but once the plot twist is revealed, there’s little substance to the script.

Don’t Worry Darling is about Alice Chambers (Florence Pugh) and Jack Chambers (Harry Styles) living the 1950s utopian dream of a young married couple, in a beautiful house, with neighbours and drinks party every week. However, looks are very deceiving, and happiness is only an illusion.

It’s difficult to discuss Don’t Worry Darling without giving away the plot twist. I will say that it leans very heavily on Pleasantville. You’ll guess it from about 15 minutes into the film, but the why isn’t fully explained. That’s the main issue,  the script needed more work, especially once the twist is revealed. We needed more context. It’s all very well to show the patriarchy for what they are, fearful of female power, but we needed more showing and telling why some men are evil.

Florence Pugh and Chris Pine are both sensational and Florence especially gives this film its emotional depth. 

Olivia Wilde’s direction is assured once the film gets going. At the start, there were scenes where I was left dizzy as the camera went round in circles. A female director taking on sci fi should be applauded but she needed a better script. I also wonder about the wisdom of casting herself as one of the main characters in the film. Her character, Bunny, gets one of the pivotal moments of the entire film. Either she’s a director or an actor but if she wants to be both, then she needs to be a minor character in her own film. The cinematography and set design are outstanding.

Harry Styles is fine but cannot match Florence Pugh’s emotional range on screen and this leaves the movie unbalanced. He clearly can’t do an American accent, so they let him keep his native Northern English accent!

Don’t Worry Darling will be released in UK cinemas on Friday 23 September.

Ticket to Paradise is like a dream luxury holiday that you wish for, save all your money and then arrive and think: is this it, as the days merge into one and paradise turns into boring hell. The film Ticket to Paradise is written and directed by Ol Parker with the two leads played by George Clooney and Julia Roberts should have been a rom com delight, except it isn’t.

Two divorced parents, Georgia (Julia Roberts) and David (George Clooney) decide to put aside their mutual hatred in order to stop, what they believe is a huge mistake, their daughter Lily getting married to a local man she meets on her post graduation trip to Bali.

Ticket to Paradise’s premise is a decent one if indeed it had a solid storyline and script. What we the audience are left with are a series of set pieces that individually are occasionally funny eg. when Georgia and David are sat next to each other in business class but then the jokes wane. I’m sure it was funny on paper but when Clooney is supposedly bitten by a dolphin it just feels and looks lame.

The charm of rom coms is in their predictability but we need to enjoy the journey to that destination. There’s very little by way of charm in this film. Ol Parker has attempted to shake up the genre slightly but it just doesn’t work. The warring parents has been done better in It’s Complicated written by Nancy Myers. Ticket to Paradise needed more characters or possibly more time spent in the US so that we could get to know the parents better. Even with a running time of only 1hr 44 mins, this feels too long.

This film is for die hard Julia Roberts and George Clooney fans. However, if you’re looking for a 90s or early 2000 rom com this is not it, not by a long shot.

TICKET TO PARADISE IS IN CINEMAS IN THE UK & IRELAND ON 20^TH SEPTEMBER 2022

Swan Song is a gem of a film. It is a look at nostalgia, friendship and love.

Pat, is an ageing, gay, hairdresser who now resides in an old people’s home after his long term love died without a will. He receives a visit from the lawyer of his most famous and recently deceased client. The request is for Pat to come out of retirement to do her hair as she will be in an open casket.

Swan Song also manages to shine a light on the impact someone can have on the lives of others without even realising it. That cliche, always be kind, is put to the test in the film. Even at its most cliched, the gay club scene, manages to do it without melodrama but the emotion and poignancy are real. This film owes its success to the charm and magnetism of Udo Kier who embodies the character of Pat so well, that it’s hard to tell where the character ends and the actor begins. Every scene is a delight. So too, is seeing Jennifer Coolidge as Dee Dee Dale, who began as Pat’s assistant and then ran off with his best clients. In this film, Coolidge gets to act and show a range of emotions rather than her usual typecasting. It is a joy.

Swan Song is written and directed by Todd Stephens. He has given us a delightful film once it gets going. There are parts at the beginning that should have been left on the editing floor. It’s understandable that he wanted to cram as much Udo onto the screen as possible but less is more. What his script does do well is leave the space for the actors to act and there’s a scene in the old people’s home which is just so poignant and touching.

Swan Song shows you how to out with a bang and stay true to yourself. It’s also a love letter of thanks to gay men who paved the way for those who have the opportunities they could only dream of.

Swan Song is released in cinemas from 10 June.