Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 11 minutes, Director – Travis Knight

When her baby brother is taken by a murder of crows, Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) ventures into the mystical Wildwood to find him, uncovering long-gestating secrets along the way.

Laika’s ambition has to be commended. After their last films failed to make their money back – including 2019’s underrated Missing Link tanking at the box office – they return with one of the longest, most expensive stop-motion animated films of all time. An adaptation 16-years in the works and with scale to show for it.

In both the recreated streets of Portland, Oregon, where the studio is based, and enchanted wilderness of Wildwood there’s a grandness in the look and feel of the animation. It’s smoother and more naturalistic than some of their previous features, but most importantly it’s alive. Like the early days of Aardman where a lot of the charm comes from the fact you can see the fingerprints, Wildwood creates wonder from the fact you can see it was made by hand, the tiniest details have been paid great attention to (if you get the chance to check out the Wildwood Exhibition at London’s Design Museum before it closes in January it’s well worth a wonderous trip).

We explore these worlds alongside teenager Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), the studio’s bravest and most engaging hero yet; she’s a brilliant character. Venturing into the impassable wilderness when her baby brother, is taken there by a kidnapping murder of crows, a land of giant talking animals and magic opens up. However, there are secrets and dark forces at play, and they may link back to Carey Mulligan’s Dowager Governess.

Mulligan’s character has a real darkness to her, and the film as a whole holds a threat and violence – holding a justified 12 rating from the BBFC. It doesn’t talk down or try to tame itself, it tells its story as it wants to be told, truly embracing animation as a medium rather than, as some continue to mistake it, a genre exclusive for younger viewers.

The aforementioned scale is captured in these darker sequences where multiple puppets are clashing at once, engaging in cleanly-brought-together battle. A chase scene around halfway through has a tense rush all by itself, but becomes something astonishing when you start to wonder how on earth it was pulled off by the animation team.

From early on Wildwood shows itself as a true fantasy epic, both visually and narratively. Details in the dialogue and movement of the plot help to further expand the world beyond what we’re being shown, and hold us in place as Prue learns to tackle the ways of Wildwood and use the magic she once stopped believing in to the advantage of those around her.

Laika have truly placed themselves in her shoes. Brave and ambitious, engaging and full of wonder, she’s a strong protagonist to see this journey through the eyes of and a huge part of why the final product has the push and spectacle it does. Sweeping us into both the wilderness and wings of a giant eagle (voiced by Angela Bassett) each step (or individually animated swoop) of the way.

A fantasy epic full of spectacular detail, Laika’s animation is truly alive and witnessed through the eyes of their strongest lead character to date who forges ahead with equal ambition and wonder to the film.

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 46 minutes, Director – Brian Duffield

Whilst searching for his father’s (Josh Brolin) remains, diver Jay (Austin Abrams) is swallowed by a sperm whale, with limited oxygen left to escape.

There’s a moment in the trailer for Whalefall that stood out as ridiculous amongst the possibility of an otherwise tense claustrophobic escape thriller. The sperm whale that Austin Abrams’ diver Jay is swallowed by juts out from the water for a short moment, Jay has seemingly almost escaped and could otherwise make a quick exit through the creature’s mouth if it weren’t for it being horizontal. Peering through and seeing daylight he screams for help in the hope a passing boat will hear him. In the film the moment does indeed come across as ridiculous, yet it’s one of the most effective the 106-minutes has to offer.

As Jay, searching for his father’s (Josh Brolin) remains, attempts to escape through the inside of a whale there’s a slight cycling feeling to the different stages, separated by flashbacks to his childhood (played by Grayson Paul Solomine, Ronin Pribble and Sam Franich as he gets older) and cold interactions with his demanding father; which soon act as lessons of how to survive and escape his current situation. Squid attacks, depleting oxygen and tight spaces make for numerous battles with a dash of tension, even if sometimes echoing other survival thrillers where the past acts as a way to escape.

It’s these callbacks that can sometimes feel slightly heavier-handed than perhaps intended. Especially when used as frequently as they are, perhaps why someone such as Brolin is in the role. Much like the present-day details there are some moments of these flashbacks, in this case when less forceful in terms of both emotion and clearly building up to something later referred to in the escape, that work better than others. Whalefall as a whole is a pretty simple film, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it sometimes feels as if it pushes its dramatic beats a bit too much to make up for that, something that doesn’t need to be made up for.

Abrams puts in a good central performance and helps to get across some of the tension, particularly during some of the most confined moments. With this and Resident Evil his growing streak of not-particularly-great-days is providing good entertainment, and hopefully more roles for him in future (maybe something less stressful for his character, however). Whalefall may occasionally feel as if it treads water with some overdone dramatic sequences and familiar tone to others in the escape sections, but there’s a solid tension amongst them and engaging survival escape thriller that’s seen through to the end. One that appears to work best when embracing ideas that appear to be ridiculous, when fully committing to the moment.

While there might feel a familiar cycle to the narrative layout, when not being so heavy with the drama and committing fully to the sometimes more ridiculous aspects of the escape there’s an engaging and occasionally tense time to be had with Whalefall.

Cert – PG, Run-time – 1 hour 49 minutes, Directors – Joel Crawford, Januel P Mercado

Best friends Jo (H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano) are transported to a magical island they’ve searched for since childhood, however returning home may cost their memories and friendship.

Forgotten Island is running on a treadmill turned up to eleven. Constantly moving and in an excitable rush like its two lead characters, best friends Jo (H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano), the world is bright, colourful and full of creatures that could well be from their imaginations. For years people have said that the magical island of Nakali is solely in their imaginations, despite Jo’s grandmother (Dolly De Leon) claiming that she once went there, but they’re determined to find a way to get there and prove it exists.

As they’re at risk of being separated, with Raissa being accepted to Caltech and flying off the next day, they find that their childhood dream puts them at risk of losing their friendship, and memories of each other altogether. Here, when delving in to this idea in the third act, Forgotten Island finds its core. It’s hinted at throughout with ideas of memory demons and trading mementos and charm bracelets to be able to get home but when it comes to the emotional aspects these points are truly brought forward with a real effect when needed most. They’re what convinced me of the film and proved it was working.

There’s a good deal to like in the humour and many sequences exploring different characters or parts of the island – Dave Franco plays were-dog Raww who acts as a guide for the pair while Ronny Chieng plays the leader of cute miniature mushroom-shaped beings, King Truffle Wuffle – and when going full force on the frantic rush of escapes or wonder it’s hard not to be caught up in the near-chaos. Especially when led by two highly likable characters who you’re made to feel part of the friendship rather than an observer.

They’re fun and jokes are gleeful, chaotic and unashamed. A shared heart is key to it, and embracing the quirks, madness and joyful needle drops (including karaoke numbers) – as they do with Nakali and what it has to offer, and at times threaten to take away from them. There are plenty of memories attached to that shared heart, and when looking at this and the emotional attachment they created in a moment and continue to have Forgotten Island is at its best. Most in-tune with those ideas of memories and having an emotional effect that makes the most of out connection to the friendship as well as Jo and Raissa’s own friendship.

While there’s enjoyment in the bright, fast-paced chaos the emotional beats truly come in when the relationship and memories of Forgotten Island’s joyful central pair are brought most to the fore in the emotions of the third act.

Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 8 minutes, Director – Paul Greengrass

England, 1381, a farmer known only as Ploughman (Andrew Garfield) leads a rebellion against Richard II’s (Woody Norman) raising of taxes on the poor after the Black Death.

There’s a lot of anger and ferocity in The Uprising. From Andrew Garfield in front of the camera and Paul Greengrass behind it. The pair make a solid team in getting across the heat, fury and bloodshed that makes up the events of the titular rebellion. There’s an intensity to them as we’re thrown directly into the action each time, the mud and the blood captured in documentary style, although occasionally feeling a tad overused and having an adverse effect.

However, despite there still being a passion on display for the subject matter of a peasants uprising, and the relevance that holds today in different contexts across the world, a feeling of repetition in the style of the clashes between the peasants, led by Garfield’s farmer Ploughman – “I am what I do” – and King Richard II’s (Woody Norman) army begins to settle in. When happening multiple times over the 2-hour+ run-time there’s a slightly stretched, almost thin, feeling to the film.

Events are certainly quick to start, and end, with Greengrass’ screenplay staying focused on the events of the rebellion and purely that – occasionally glimpsing the decisions of the king and his council (led by Tom Hollander’s Treasurer Hales), responsible for the rise in taxes on the poor that leads to the initial backlash at the film’s opening, with Garfield yelling “enough!” as he swipes away the papers across a tax collector’s table in the first outburst.

Supporting characters pop in and out of the proceedings – played by the likes of Jamie Bell, Thomasin McKenzie and Cosmo Jarvis. Some have more of an impact than others, with it being clear that some are clearly going to turn into some form of inspiration for later, or rather closing, events. With the eventual closing events potentially dividing people as to how they end up, while I personally think they generally worked and leaned into an idea of folklore that the film itself appears to capture in the way that it tells its tale and views its lead character, and those around him, on their journey towards London to get the King to do something about the unjust taxes and treatments faced by those far beyond the city.

As word spreads and more and more people join the growing crowd headed towards the capital the feeling of growth on really appears in those moments where we see the extent of those taking part in the rebellion. Otherwise, things still feel somewhat the same when it comes to how sequences, encounters and exchanges are shot. There’s something of a cycle rather than progression, and while it largely works it feels as if more needs to escalate – which is difficult to do when things are dialled up so high almost from the start, which has its own effect but causes issues later on.

Feeling as if it cycles more than grows The Uprising has a fire to it from both Garfield and Greengrass, but spreading a similar style to its clashes over two hours means events can feel repetitious or thin overshadowing the intensity and folkloric beats.

Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 12 minutes, Director – Aaron Sorkin

Facebook engineer Frances Haugen (Mike Madison) turns whistleblower to Wall Street Journal writer Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) over the company’s intentional pushing of extreme and rage-inducing political content.

When told that Aaron Sorkin’s 160+ page script for The Social Network was too long director David Fincher sat down and recording him reading it to prove that it would clock in at two hours. Exactly that time later, the eventual run-time for the film, his ‘they’re going to say it quickly’ point was proved. It comes across in the punchiness of one of the most acclaimed, and still relevant, dramas of the 21st century. 16 years later Sorkin writes, and takes on directing duties, for what has been branded either a spiritual sequel or follow-up, documenting the whistleblowing that lead to The Wall Street Journal’s publication of The Facebook Files.

Clocking in at just 12 minutes longer the conversations here are slower, less sparky and feel dissected into chunks. We see Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) in 2021 preparing with a media team to testify, rarely taking on their advice and simply adding to his own frustration. Strong could be giving a great performance but he’s reduced to ‘another day at the office’ with brief snippets to simply provide info for the scenes to come between Mikey Madison, as Facebook engineer Frances Haugen, and Jeremy Allen White, playing journalist Jeff Horwitz.

Together the pair back-and-forth, piecing together a series of articles about how Facebook’s algorithm purposefully pushes rage-baiting content, leading to political extremism and toxic behaviour in society. Yet, Haugen wants to keep her job at Facebook but also wants to stop the negativity being spread, especially to young people via Instagram. This means she flits between helping and providing information and holding back. She also at times comes across as an almost unlikable character because of her shifts, particularly when seemingly switching in the middle of a scene or things start to heat up in exchanges with Horwitz. Small comments about Frank Capra films, music or books are placed for amusement, but none get any response and sit somewhat awkwardly amongst the surroundings.

Interesting beats arrive at the sporadic unveilings of information, finding out just what Facebook has been hiding and pushing. It’s what holds engagement and helps to maintain the drama that runs throughout, actually building up to the release of The Facebook Files and seeing the articles form. It’s where Sorkin appears to find his biggest kick, in the details actually about the journalism and writing side of things rather than the conversations that lead to them. He seems as his snappiest when writing for Horwitz’s exchanges with two young interns working at the WSJ offices and helping him with sudden Q&A riffs or experiments with the social platform.

The problem with The Social Reckoning is that, despite the fact that we eventually get insurrection footage in relation to what the files uncover, and there is a heat that comes from that, the film doesn’t quite feel as if its lit its own fire. It seems to be at a consistent smoulder, dampened by the fact that as it goes between times and perspectives it almost feels as if it’s explaining itself to an audience that would be able to keep up without it. Disturbing its own flow with scenes that don’t feel stop-start but certainly the individual segments can be seen and felt. It feels strange for a film written by Sorkin to feel so safe in pace and tone.

While it has its moments The Social Reckoning never quite feels as if it has a complete spark, almost slowing down for the audience to explain to them what they’ve just seen, or are about to see. There’s interesting beats and effective reveals, but largely things are played surprisingly safe.

Cert- 15, Run-time – 1 hour 53 minutes, Director – Padraic McKinley

An imprisoned father (Ethan Hawke) leads a team of prisoners to retrieve a bag of gold in the hope of freedom, however one lost piece means death.

Throughout a tense rope bridge sequence, as bars of gold are being thrown one-by-one from person-to-person the pair of stakes at hand are worn across Ethan Hawke’s face. His character, Samuel Murphy’s demeanour reminds us throughout that if just one bar is lost he and his team of fellow prisoners will be killed, and in turn his young daughter (Avy Berry) is put into care and never to be reunited with him.

The task is set by Russell Crowe’s Warden Clancy, the head of the Depression era America work camp, is at with the promise of freedom from his wrongful sentence if the job of transporting a bag full of gold bars is completed successfully. However, the team appears untrustworthy, and if one flees or fails everyone does.

In this light what plays out is a somewhat familiar story, but with Hawke’s performance we’re reminded throughout with repetition of dialogue of what’s at stake. It brings more to the somewhat light drama at hand, and tension to key sequences where the intensity lies in the team effort of an uncertain team.

Familiarity may play into the events and dampen some of the possible tension in this mid-budget drama, the kind of which is rarely made these days; something which Hawke and Crowe appear to acknowledge in their performances (although the latter gets a good deal less screen-time than the former once the journey begins). 1977’s Sorcerer in particular comes to mind on a number of occasions with the base narrative and aforementioned rope bridge sequence.

It takes some time for these moments to come together, and generally at just under two-hours the film is a slight slow burn. But, it makes for interesting viewing that holds attention through the dynamics that it displays in the team. The air of mistrust and uneasiness about the task and how anyone could cause things to go wrong for everyone at any moment during key sequences.

It’s not always something the film makes the most of, with the prisoners outside of Samuel largely feeling like rough outlines aside from one or two figures who are clearly going to play a bigger part later on. It means we’re only really following one team member, the others, despite the set-up, almost feel inconsequential, perhaps expendable – working against the stakes that have been established at the start of the mission.

But, thanks to the physical and emotional weight that we see Samuel carrying, calling back to why this is all happening in the first place, there’s a likeable film here. Just one that occasionally feels at odds with its team set up and tense sequences.

Ethan Hawke puts in a consistently strong performance that reminds us of the wider stakes at hand beyond the tension of The Weight’s bag of gold. The supporting cast may feel under-detailed but there’s enough bursts of suspense in the narrative to see things through.

Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 9 minutes, Director – Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Oil baron Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) must save the world from a natural disaster after an explosion at one of his refineries sends a country-sizes mass of ice towards Europe.

I’m interested to see Digger a second time. It’s a film that plays to its own rhythm, one that may only be stepped into by some of the audience once the reveal that’s been intentionally concealed by the marketing and filmmakers has properly shown its face. To know that rhythm, and indeed the reveal which shows the film to be as much a comment on the state of satire as it is climate change, may change the overall viewing of the film. The build-up has been a mystery and to some extent after viewing it still is. But one that has circled the mind since.

Thus far, co-writer and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s latest has proved, as his films tend to be, divisive – it seemed clear from the trailers that Digger would be. It’s the reveal that both helps bring the film together in its final stages, particularly the closing ten minutes, but also holds it back at some points with need for more exploration amongst oil baron Digger Rockwell’s (Tom Cruise) split between saving the world or controlling the narrative.

When an explosion at one of his oil refineries causes an ice shelf five-times the size of Washington DC to break off and head towards Europe, likely leading to tsunamis and mass flooding, he’s tasked by the President (John Goodman, nailing authoritative delegation) to minimise the dollars lost to damage – whilst Rockwell also tries to appease his own shareholders.

Ideas relating to climate change, ‘eat the rich’, money, power and aforementioned satire can feel at risk of jumble amongst the askew comedic beats at play. Not every gag lands, some fall completely flat while others get a solid chuckle, and in many ways that reflects the overall effects of the film. Some ideas feel underdeveloped and don’t quite strike the right chord, while other sequences get across what they need with help from the surroundings. There’s an intentionally sickly, washed-out look to the production design, make-up and even sound to the score but they work with the film – alongside the production design and cinematography (Iñárritu reteaming with Birdman and The Revenant cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki).

There’s clear ambition from multiple directions on screen, and one I can see having worked well on paper to have attracted the cast which also includes Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller and Michael Stuhlbarg. While that ambition doesn’t translate to a striking message there was enough in Digger to hold my interest and engagement. How it fares in years to come I’m not as certain as others of beloved status, I think it may continue to divide opinion, but there will be plenty who find and enjoy it.

I liked what there is here, particularly when brought round by the wider ideas on satire, and think a second viewing will work better knowing the contexts and rhythms of the film. But, whilst visually and performance-wise there are strong efforts, there was also enough of each thematic element to keep me in place whilst Digger assembled itself.

An ambitious satire on satire, Digger’s gags and ideas sometimes need more time, but what does work solidly clicks in the growing context of the film. One which may make for a film that audiences can fit more into the stride of with a follow-up viewing. For a one off, I found a generally enjoyable, if not always convincing, film that plays by its own rules and breaks them, too.

Cert – U, Run-time – 2 hours 12 minutes, Director – Georgia Oakley

After the passing of their father, Davenport sisters Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles) navigate a new world of loves outside of the familiar grandness of their former home.

One of the most striking emotions in Georgia Oakley’s retelling of Sense And Sensibility doesn’t come from a sense of passion, lust or melodrama. It doesn’t involve running or staring longingly in the pouring rain; it comes from our empathy towards someone experiencing shattering heartbreak. Akin to the feeling of loss, a sense of confused betrayal that you want to ignore. We see both elder Davenport sisters, Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles) go through these emotions, perhaps so intensely for the first time, as they navigate the world outside of the grandness of their former home – having left and moved to a cottage by the Devonishire coast, although still visiting lavish homes of high society figures, after their father left their home to his son (Tom Brooke) in his will.

The upper classes give us a range of characters from Fiona Shaw’s excitable scene-stealer Mrs Jennings, who takes delight in everyone, and setting up ‘matches’, and Turlough Convery’s wealthy huntsman Sir John Middleton – giving Tom Bombadil a run for his money when it comes to jovial hospitality – to sister-in-law Fanny Davenport (Stacy Martin), in some ways the true villain of the piece with her grudges against the family she sees as getting in the way of her potential riches; the best ways to describe her cannot be uttered in polite society. Each has a distinction, each a humour. While a familiarity in tone is present this is far from a dry and dreary, or even soppy and overplayed, period romance.

There’s a modernity to the emotions at play thanks to the performances at hand, whilst keeping in place with the time period via the dialogue and general design. How this’ll play with the current teenage audiences – in the vein that 2005’s Pride And Prejudice did, and still does, for example – remains to be seen, but I think there’s a different kind of connection that can be formed here thanks to the performances, and Oakley’s lack of force.

While the different stages through which we follow the Davenports (which also include Bodhi Rae Breathnach as youngest sibling Margaret and matriarch Catriona Balfe) can sometimes feel as if they push the run-time slightly beyond comfortably fitting, there’s still an emotional resonance to be found. The push-and-pull created by and with love interests such as George MacKay’s charming, wistful, at-times distant Edward Ferrars and Herbert Nordrum’s guarded Colonel Brandon, whose straight-faced regard, and growing potential feelings for Marianne, are treated with an occasional wry smile from behind the camera, particularly by screenwriter Diana Reid.

I was taken in and, again whilst eventually feeling the run-time, the film’s attitude to the emotions of its characters, letting them speak for themselves as they emerged in the moment, remains engaging. There’s a period romance here that leans traditionally in its tone, but creates a striking resonance in how we feel for the characters and their romantic plights.

With striking emotional modernity amongst traditional tones Sense And Sensibility doesn’t force us to feel the emotions of its characters, and instead has us feel for them in their moments of heartbreak and romantic wistfulness and levity.