Debuting at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Kajillionaire is the latest effort from writer/director Miranda July, an artistic savant who has churned out music, novels, and films during her impressive career. Returning to the screen after a nine-year reprieve, July’s latest indie effort showcases her humanistic eye in a sensitive coming of age delight.
Kajillionaire follows Old Dolio Dyne (Evan Rachel Woods), a 26-year old whose sole life experience derives her detached grifter parents Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Theresa (Debra Winger). Living on the outskirts of society, the trio rob and steals while skating away from societal norms. When they introduce a new member Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) to their schemes, Dolio begins to have eye-opening revelations about her self-serving parents.
Kajillionaire’s quirky premise could potentially emanate a mawkish tone, yet July consistently steers her film towards authentic truths. Dolio’s parents aren’t lovable outcasts, instead operating as callous thieves that force their daughter into a twisted lifestyle. Robert and Theresa push Dolio to maddening extremes while constantly giving her the cold shoulder, with July using the first half to slowly build on the parent’s casual ambivalence. These frames aren’t joyless though, with Jenkins and Winger’s distinct mannerisms generating laughs along the way (they often act like whinny children who place sole responsibility on their daughter). July’s screenplay offers enough nuance to make her vibrant characters come to life, never allowing the eccentric figures to morph into caricatures.
Under this coldness, July works to create a deeply empathetic journey for Dolio. Evan Rachel Wood delivers an unrecognizable performance, disappearing into the central character’s insular persona while gradually developing her voice onscreen. Watching her slowly discover a sense of warmth and emotional vulnerability becomes a touching journey to endure, with July hitting all the right notes in the character’s gradual development (her music choices add significantly to the narrative). The addition of Gina Rodriguez to the film’s second half is a strong one, with Rodriguez offering one of her most personal performances to date while still imbuing a sharp edge.
Kajillionaire often elevates its festival sensibility, although the third act left me wishing July stuck the landing. The final frames are somewhat haphazard in their construction, concluding in a pleasant place that doesn’t necessarily feel earned given the prior development. It’s all slightly rushed, perhaps benefiting from a lengthed approach to further enrich the characters’ journey (Rodriguez’s character is sharp, but lacks thought out motivations).
Never allowing the inherent quirks to overwhelm its narrative, Kajillionaire delivers a refined character portrait from Miranda July, often enhancing the film’s familiar festival trappings.
Kajillionaire will be screening as part of the 64th BFI London Film Festival on the 7th October, and on UK general release from 9th October
Say Your Prayers: Killers In Film – There are plenty of iconic assassins and killers prowling through the screens, from Leon to John Wick to Hanna. But some stories twist the trope. The best Killer comedies out there show us what would happen if you crossed paths with someone who was more dumb than deadly, and the Brits do it better than most.
To celebrate the release of the new dark British comedy Say Your Prayers – about two hapless religious assassins (yes you read that right, religious assassins) – we’re taking a look at some of the best, worst killers in film.
Whether these killers are ill-matched duos, secretly sweet loners, or just plain stupid – you better hope you meet them instead of your maker.
Say Your Prayers (2020) – Tim and Vic
Mistaken identity ends up being fatal when these two extremists end up assassinating the wrong man. In an unholy mix-up, Say Your Prayers follows two orphans (Harry Melling and Tom Brooke) trying to get righteousness right and kill a celebrity atheist before their mentor (Derek Jacobi on wickedly dark form) punishes them for getting the wrong man. As they wait out the consequences in a sleep English village, these struggle-brothers must contend with the hitman’s worst nightmare – curious locals.
Say Your Prayers will be released on demand 28th September
Traumatised by a bungle on his first hitman job that sees him kill an innocent, Ray and his partner Ken take a trip to Bruges to settle his nerves and avoid the fallout. Forget cool killers, Ray spends most of this cheeky Martin McDonagh feature skating the edge of a full mental breakdown – someone give him a cuddle.
Sightseers (2012) – Tina and Chris
This holidaying couple are a little better than the entries so far, in that they actually get rid of the people that they mean to. The problem is, they’re only supposed to be on holiday. Alice Lowe and Steve Oram take British passive-aggression to another level as a couple that cheerfully murder anyone who bothers them on their travels through the countryside. Diss their wellingtons at your own risk.
The Cottage (2008) – David and Peter
All they wanted was a Ransom. After kidnapping the daughter of a Crime Boss, Tracey, brothers David and Peter (Andy Serkis and Reece Shearmsith) discover they’ve bitten off more than they can chew. Stuck in a Cottage with the surprisingly resilient and bullish Tracey, the brothers spend the film not terrorizing but being attacked in turns by her and a local farmer who makes a hobby out of killing trespassers. It’s just not their day.
The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse (2005) – Tubbs and Edward
Any frequent visitors of demented sitcom village Royston Vasey know that ‘local’ corner shop killers Tubbs and Edward have a marriage built on buried outsiders. Reece Shearmsith and Steve Pemberton return as the lovey-dovey duo who ‘will have no trouble here’ for the feature film. The thing is, while they’re good at hiding bodies, they’re pretty much bad at everything else – understanding nothing and making no profit from the shop. Don’t ask them for a can of cola.
Any frequent visitors of demented sitcom village Royston Vasey know that ‘local’ corner shop killers Tubbs and Edward have a marriage built on buried outsiders. Reece Shearmsith and Steve Pemberton return as the lovey-dovey duo who ‘will have no trouble here’ for the feature film. The thing is, while they’re good at hiding bodies, they’re pretty much bad at everything else – understanding nothing and making no profit from the shop. Don’t ask them for a can of cola.
What we Do in the Shadows (2014) – Vlad, Viago and Nick
Completely undoing the hard work of Robert Pattinson to make Vampires look cool – Taika Waititi brought a fly on the wall expose to screens with a mockumentary on the world’s most docile bloodsuckers. Taika himself and Jemaine Clement are highlights (or lowlights) – bickering over dishes and getting emotional about their ancient ex-girlfriends as part of a gang of ‘deadly’ flatmates who are scared of their own shadows.
Hot Fuzz (2007) – The Villagers
Not many people can make Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s chracters look capable. But that’s precisely what this gaggle of cult / serial killers locals manage when new policeman Nicholas (Pegg) gets assigned to their town to clean up the ruckus. From flower shop owners to pint pullers, this is a crowd that won’t be getting good trip advisor reviews anytime soon.
A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life (2019) – Lou Farnt and Val Stone
Self-help comes at a huge price when two women go on a bloody journey of self-discovery. Taken in by Val (Poppy Roe) and her doctrine that murder mends the mind, sheepish Lou (Katie Brayben) finds herself an accomplice to an ill-thought out killing spree of rival gurus. She’s more upset about her confidence issues though.
Prevenge (2017) – Ruth
Baby Blues leave a woman’s hands red in this darkly funny twist on pregnancy hormones. Most women get food cravings, Ruth (Alice Lowe) gets murder cravings when pregnant. It may not be in medical writing but taking up a hobby of serial killing while carrying a baby is not advised.
Mindhorn (2017) – Paul Melley
A washed-up TV Actor is called out of retirement to take up the mantle of his serial sleuth ‘Mindhorn’. The reason? There’s a killer on the loose, one so stupid he actually thinks that the character is real. Julian Barratt is hilarious as Thorncroft, a trooper of a thespian just trying to live up to his character – and Russell Tovey is on fine demented form as the killer Clive, living out his own dream villain plot.
To some this seemed inevitable. To others unthinkable. To many, a genuine surprise. Cineworld, the largest cinema chain in the U.K., are closing all 128 venues across Britain with the loss of over five thousand jobs.
It is, quite simply, a devastating blow to the cinema industry, particularly as this also affects over five hundred Regal cinemas in the U.S., with many more redundancies likely there too as a result. Commentators have been long anxious about the Covid-19 pandemic resulting in the death of independent cinemas, privately owned minnows in a sea of corporations, but for Cineworld to admit defeat, close their doors until some point in 2021, and lay off most of their workforce, proves just how badly our unprecedented situation has marked the cinematic landscape. If there was one organisation you would imagine had the reserves and resolve to battle on, it was Cineworld.
The trigger for this has been, undoubtedly, the push back of the 25th James Bond movie No Time to Die, which in a remarkable about face – remarkable for the fact Eon & MGM were going full bore with their marketing campaign for the intended November release, including posters, podcasts, music etc… – decided to move the film’s release until April for the second time, conservatively hopeful that the pandemic will be under greater control in Europe by Easter. Cineworld, and the entire landscape, were banking on 007 appropriately coming to the rescue and now he has gone ‘undercover’ for six months, shall we say, then all hope appears to be lost. The Blofeld that is Covid-19 is too much for Cineworld, haemorrhaging profits and facing down sizeable debt as their cinemas remain open with few punters, and the result is the worst outcome: redundancies.
Let’s not kid ourselves on who is principally to blame here, though. It’s not the public. It’s not the film studios. The blame lies with an ineffective, willowy, strategically inept government who have allowed things to get this far.
The opening of cinemas during the pandemic has always been a scenario filled with various chickens and various eggs, since the beginning of the protracted lockdown in March this year.
It made sense for Cineworld to close as the pandemic hit hard. And in the government’s defence, though they should have been more adequately prepared and consistently had ignored advice that such a scenario was likely, scaling back pre-emptive attempts to plan for it, Covid’s impact and how to counteract it took time in which the country, and the entire world, reeled from the reality of the situation. By the summer however, with lockdown restrictions lessening and the country slowly beginning to return to work in key industries, Cineworld took the plunge of re-opening and exhibiting ‘classic’ movies to tease audiences back in. My best mate would regale me in July of tales in going back to his local Odeon with his son, catching The Empire Strikes Back or 1989’s Batman, and having a great time. He would tell me his screenings were largely empty, they were safe. Returning to the cinema seemed a perfectly viable thing to do.
Understandably though, the public were reticent to return. Who can blame them? In almost every other sector, the government were vacillating on rules and regulations, in everything from retail through to opening schools. U-turns abounded, ministers contradicted each other, the track & trace system was a shambles. While the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was a relative success, albeit temporarily, and the public certainly did not seem backwards in going forwards about getting back onto city streets when shops opened up, cinemas seemed a different prospect. Two hours in a ventilated room surrounded by strangers—with often only two metres social distance possible sideways and not in front or behind—with no obligation to wear face masks at first. Why would people return to cinemas with such uncertainty? In fairness, Cineworld and other chains did everything they could to keep Covid at bay, on the ground. Social distancing, sanitizers, alterations to screens etc… but the doubts remained.
The saviour was considered to be Tenet, the big new blockbuster from Christopher Nolan that, after one or two push backs, stayed the course as a brave test case for how to open a tent pole picture during the pandemic. The result was fair to middling. More people ventured to see it—myself included, but two weeks after it debuted on a quiet Sunday morning and masked up all the way—but not enough for it to be considered the salve for the cinematic nation. Would No Time to Die have fared better in this slot? Maybe. Nolan has as many detractors as he does fans and once reports of Tenet’s wilfully bonkers, time-splicing narrative leaked, with polarising reviews across the board, that surely couldn’t have helped common or garden film fans make the journey. 007 might have led more consumers to take the plunge rather than Tenet’s brand of icy, esoteric intelligence (and I say this as someone who thought it was a terrific movie).
Tenet’s release just prefigured, however, the long expected second wave of Covid-19 cutting across Europe. Coronavirus on the march saw most of the major releases pushed back into September and October jump ship, leaving only No Time to Die to weather the storm. And in that, the government response continued to be paltry. This isn’t from the perspective of financial solvency, let’s be clear; bailing Cineworld out almost certainly would not have been viable as a major, international PLC with a significant turnover, even with the disappearing furlough scheme for employees helping businesses out across 2020. The poor response lies solely with the consistent government mishaps in bringing Covid-19 to heel, with badly enforced, confusing rules across the country, conflicting advice, problems with mass testing and a track & trace system still lagging behind other nations. If people were being told they shouldn’t visit relatives in their homes, why would they risk going to a cinema, even one operating at around 30% capacity?
The simple reality, however, as to why Cineworld has ended up in this position is due to the dearth of pictures available for people to see. We have already seen a trend away from cinemas, in the main, making money from smaller, independent films, at the expense of the major blockbusters that fill up copious screens in the primary chains. I’m as guilty as the rest for this; despite having a Cineworld card, I’m far less likely to venture out to see Kajillionaire than I would have been Black Widow, and I say this as someone who enjoys independent film and studies cinema, rather than just a regular fan who goes to the movies and doesn’t think too hard about it. So, this is the public’s fault, right? If cinemas are supposedly safe, with few cases of Covid being contracted in them, then their avoidance has surely resulted in closures? The public don’t mind having raves or illegal parties or infesting shopping centres and going out for meals, but they won’t show up for smaller films to support their cinemas.
Here’s where the issue is chicken and egg. No Time to Die moved because Eon & MGM saw a continued resurgence of Covid-19 in Europe where the franchise makes a significant amount of box office, and ultimately they have a responsibility to protect their bottom line and aim for the film to make as much profit as possible – No Time to Die will be aiming for that sweet billion, ultimately. Had the U.K. better controlled the spread of infection, keeping Covid down by not sending hundreds of thousands of children back to school at once or releasing restrictions too soon in various sectors, the film might well have opened in November. Not everyone would have ventured out to see it, but it would have given Cineworld, and other chains and particularly independents, the boost they needed and possibly encouraged the bigger hitters delayed until Christmas—Dune, Wonder Woman 1984 etc… – to go for broke, further boosting the sector. But that didn’t happen. Those films will almost certainly now move and if they do, there will be little incentive for most audiences to return to cinemas until realistically around Easter 2021.
Yes, the studios are trying to protect their shareholders. Yes, the public have at times been reckless and not obeyed Covid restrictions. And yes, Cineworld didn’t even pre-warn their staff of redundancies before the news leaked to The Sunday Times. But if the film sector is collapsing in the U.K., let’s aim the blame where it’s due: a haphazard, mercurial government whose ineptitude now could see thousands of hard-working people out of a job just in time for Christmas. Hardly the magic of movies at work.
Yellow Rose is the debut feature-film by Diane Paragas about a talented teenage undocumented Filipino girl living in America, with dreams of becoming a country music star.
The film starts out as a sweet story about Rose who doesn’t fit in – looking different from her peers and having an overprotective mother – but who has a special talent and secret dreams. Yet, quickly the plot takes a dramatic turn as we discover Rose and her mother have been living as illegal immigrants. Her mother is abruptly taken away by immigration enforcement one night while Rose attends her first country music gig, forcing her to live with an estranged Aunt whose husband clearly doesn’t want her there.
Rose eventually flees her Aunts house and works a myriad of jobs to support herself as she figures out her path in life. Eventually she is taken under the wing of musician Dale Watson, playing himself, who helps her realise her talent and grow into a performer. By the end of the film, Rose feels like a woman who can look after herself and has the confidence and life experience to tell her story to a crowd through her music.
This is an important film that gives an authentic and heart wrenching portrayal of American immigration authorities tearing a family apart who are only seeking a better life for their children. At the heart of this story is Rose’s hero’s journey as she lives the American dream by grafting her own career in country music.
Broadway icons Eva Noblezada and Lea Salonga star as Rose and her Aunt Gail, and bring exquisite truth and undeniable chemistry to their characters. Noblezada’s voice does not disappoint, and her performances of the country music numbers are stunning. Fans of Gaga’s recent A Star Is Born will love this.
The cinematography is notably good, with a consistent vintage feel, set in the sweeping plains of the South and the colourful town of Austin, Texas.
Apparently Paragas adapted this film from her short of the same name. This explains why the plot can feel slow at times and drags. The catalyst and crisis appear very early on when Rose’s mother is arrested, but after there is a lull where not enough action unfolds to warrant the length of the movie.
Nevertheless, this is a well-made film that is to be commended on it’s inclusivity and it’s provocative subject matter whilst being a heart-warming coming of age story.
Paris Hilton is an icon. Love her or hate her, Paris spawned an entire generation of pseudo celebrities, and is even credited with inventing the selfie. As the original “famous for nothing” heiress Paris created a sub-culture built on the heels of the recognition she gained from the reality series “The Simple Life” where she lived on a rural farm and worked blue collar jobs with her best friend Nicole Richie.
Most people remember her famous sayings “that’s hot” and “loves it” but none of us ever met the woman behind the curtain and carefully constructed image.Fast forward to present day, we meet Paris as a successful DJ. An entrepreneur in her own right, Paris shrewdly capitalized on her mid 2000’s fame and created a global brand. This girl is sharp. She knows how to make money, but she really isn’t the image she created.We also meet her equally intelligent sister, Nicky Hilton Rothschild who gives her doses of tough love.
Their sisterly bond is interesting as they had two entirely different experiences growing up, but Nicky’s care and concern for her sister was unique and heartwarming. We then dive into Paris’s upbringing, and it wasn’t all glitz and glamour as one would think.Paris was a rebellious teen, and during those years her parents sent her off to a handful of different schools in hopes they would straighten her out, the worst of the lot being Provo Canyon School where Paris and her classmates recalled being verbally, physically and emotionally abused.
Each have suffered lasting effects from the abuse, in Paris’s case it led to her getting into a toxic relationship with Rick Solomon who then sold her out with the infamous “1 Night in Paris” sex tape. Paris, not understanding that abuse was wrong due to her treatment at Provo clung on to Rick for the love she so desperately craved and needed. She reluctantly agreed to filming the sex tape due to pressure from Solomon, and her desire to make him happy.
The PTSD caused a lifetime of damage for her, humiliation and degradations followed her well into her adult life. The documentary, from director Alexandra Dean really makes you understand the inner workings of Paris. Why she is the way that she is, and what her struggles were. We were even able to see how much she has grown when she was about to play at the Tomorrowland festival, arguably the biggest moment of her career as a DJ.
It was there that her boyfriend at the time, Aleks, instead of being happy for her, seemed hellbent on being jealous and catty and tried to ruin it for her. I admired Paris as she ripped the VIP bracelet off his arm and kicked him out, not allowing him to ruin what she had built. She went on to play a successful set and move on with her life. I obviously don’t know her, but, as an audience member, I felt proud of her.
She has suffered abuse, has been hated, made fun of, and humiliated yet she still knew her worth, presented herself as someone of high value, and no longer had the tolerance for someone who just wanted to control her. She set a boundary and stuck to it. Women as a whole could follow this example from her. No matter what we have gone through in relationships and life, we all deserve someone who treats us with care and respect, supports our dreams, and wants to be with us.
At one point in the film, Paris described a photo famed photographer David LaChappelle took of her before she was famous. Inside her grandparents posh Beverly Hills living room Paris flicked off the camera, unknowingly telling the world and her abusers to fuck off. It was interesting as it was almost prophetic of her growth trajectory as a person and a celebrity, she’s had enough and isn’t afraid to show it.
