Welcome to the BRAG’s weekly rundown of what’s hot in the coming seven days of cinematic releases. It’s a real serious week, you guys, with three more Oscar contenders just in case you weren’t already sick of them.
Then again, this week is post-Deadpool, so maybe we needed a jolt of something serious to bring us back to reality. Or not, if the box office numbers are to be believed. Anyway, furrow your brows, kids – there are issues to discuss.
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CONCUSSION
Whoa, things just got serious. Looks like Will Smith‘s going for that Oscar too! Plus it’s his second film this year with Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje; we’ll see them as Deadshot and Killer Croc respectively, in the film that has me more pumped than any other 2016 release: Suicide Squad.
But back to business – Concussion tells the true story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, a respected medical examiner who discovers the titular condition as it affects NFL players and takes on one of America’s biggest institutions to have the truth made public.
Fans of Ali and The Pursuit Of Happyness will be glad to see Smith returning to serious fare. Me? I miss MiB.
tl;dr Be afraid, NFL. Deadshot comin’.
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TRUMBO
Yay, moar real stories about Hollywood. And another one set in the Hollywood golden age, where people of colour didn’t exist and communists were the real threat and men were men and yadda yadda yadda. Please let the Oscar season end already. There are dictators who’ve done less self-mythologising than Hollywood has of late.
Fortunately, we’ve got the king of acting Bryan Cranston here to carry the film, along with John Goodman, Louis C.K. and Helen Mirren putting in their arch best, in the story of top screenwriter Donald Trumbo, who falls out of favour when his political leanings are laid bare.
Picture Hail, Caesar! with fewer laughs and more Walter White.
tl;dr Cranston at the Oscars –
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45 YEARS
Let’s put aside the political struggles for now and focus on some a little lighter, like, say… a drama about how difficult is is to stay in love as the decades pass. Oh boy…
For those of you who thought “man, we really need more films like Amour to brighten our summer”, you’re in for a treat – as are the rest of us, if the critics are to be believed. 45 Years has received near-universal acclaim as a throwback to ‘classic’ filmmaking, intimate and wholly reliant on its leads to evoke emotions.
Charlotte Rampling has always been a wonder and Tom Courtenay sports an impressive portfolio; no doubt they’ll have an effortless sway over us.
tl;dr oh god it’s happening again
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HOW TO BE SINGLE
“Hey ladies! Are you over 30 and still single? Well, just what the fuck is wrong with you? Are you some kind of freak?” That’s the old Hollywood adage this trailer is screaming. What’s the bet that, eventually, Dakota Johnson (and yes, even her wacky friend Rebel Wilson) will finally find the right penis-owner and settle down into more socially acceptable members of society?
Apparently that’s not entirely true, but I’m the first to admit that I’m the wrong person to talk to when it comes to rom-coms. That said, those in the know aren’t too hot on How To Be Single either. Poor Johnson is being bounced from one Valentine’s Day slop-bucket to another.
While body- and sex-positivity are admirable traits for this film, its attempts to right the wrongs of its peers while emulating them is like trying to have your cake and have sex with it too.
tl;dr Thank god Johnson’s single again, her last boyfriend was an arsehole.
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SHERPA
It was an easy choice for last pick in a week with seven cinematic releases, with Ride Along 2 looking like a ready-made bomb and Risen lip-servicing the broad American Christian audience (and looking perhaps a little too much like the fake film under production in Hail, Caesar!). This is the story you need to hear…
As a documentary crew follows Phurba Tashi Sherpa on his record-setting 22nd ascent of Mount Everest, disaster strikes on an unprecedented scale, and the filmmakers capture an event destined to shape the future of climbing the world’s greatest summit.
If last year’s Everest moved you even slightly, remember this: not only did the film significantly downplay the role of the sherpas, it was in production on the mountain’s slopes when this disaster occurred.
tl;dr Saw Everest? Didn’t care about the sherpas?
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And now for THE VERDICT – maybe you only get the chance to see one of these flicks on the big screen, and you don’t wanna waste that night out. So, drum roll please…
Amidst all the self-seriousness, it’s Sherpa that has the strongest message, and the one most often unheard. Plus they’re having fundraising screenings so your money will go to something a little more world-shaping than Will Smith’s next father-son outing. Also, if you’re trying to quit smoking, you may want to avoid Trumbo.
Until next week!
