Horror flick Sator (to rent on digital platforms) has attracted some good reviews but it is one that I struggled with. A family living in a desolate forest attract the attention of a supernatural creature that attempts to possess them. Filmed mostly in darkness, director Jordan Graham has certainly created something atmospheric and inherently creepy. However his script leaves a lot to be desired, and the resolutely low-key mumbled delivery by all the cast just added to a general feeling of tedium that I could not overcome.
Rating: 3 out of 10

Darkly comic I Care a Lot (Amazon Prime) is quite a treat. Rosamund Pike is perfectly cast as Marla Grayson, a legal guardian for elderly people who runs a scam with the help of crooked doctors and care home owners to steal from the people who she is meant to be caring for. They seem to have the perfect mark in Jennifer Paterson (Dianne Wiest) but she turns out to have scary connections.

I am sure it is not this easy to get control of peoples’ affairs but the corruption at the heart of the system depicted is all too believable, as is Pike’s reptilian performance. Peter Dinklage is masterly as the man that Marla crosses and Wiest is so good that I was wanting to see more of her character. It was also pleasing to see Alicia Witt, who seems To have Neen side-lined in Hallmark Christmas movies, in a small but juicy part as a doctor on the take. Mark Canham’s synth heavy score propels the action well when needed and I hope that writer/director J. Blakeson uses this to kick start his slow building career.
Rating: 8 out of 10

SAS: Red Notice (Sky Movies) is strictly for fans of brainless action movies. A family team of mercenaries (seriously) hold up a Eurostar train demanding a ransom to prevent it being blown up. Naturally, one of the passengers is Tom Buckingham, an SAS operative going on holiday. A while before getting the gig as James Bond, Daniel Craig starred in the excellent Layer Cake; very much a calling card. Sam Hueghan is tipped to take over the role and this is his effort to do the same. He is pretty good at the action stuff and the middle section of the film when he and his SAS chums try to take back control of the train is really well-staged.

Unfortunately, the rest of the film does not live up to that. Tom’s scenes with his girlfriend and child he rescues are pretty cringeworthy and those involving a scheming British Prime Minister are completely unconvincing. Talented actors like Tom Wilkinson and Anne Reid can add little, and Ruby Rose was better in a similar role in The Doorman a couple of months ago, but Andy Serkis attacks his dialogue with reckless abandon!
Rating: 6 out of 10

A couple of years ago, Tallulah Haddon gave one of the worst performances of the decade in the dreadful Spaceship. She is now starring in the title role in Justine (Curzon Home Cinema), a distressing but also sometimes frustrating look at the life of a self destructive young woman. The intelligent but aimless Justine (Haddon) meets the more together Rachel (Sophie Reid) and the pair fall in love. But the alcoholic Justine seems set on destroying the budding relationship.

Haddon redeems herself with a terrific performance, matched by Reid, both making you believe in their romance even though it seems strange that Rachel would fall for someone who is such a mess. Director Jamie Patterson with his cinematographer Paul O’Callaghan have a real feel for their Brighton locations, and it was a treat to see my favourite cinema, The Duke of York’s, used for one of their dates. However, Justine’s sketchy back story frustratingly gives little insight into her actions, and the use of a music backed montage to conclude the film seemed cliched and unsatisfying.
Rating: 7 out of 10

With the Oscar nominations out this week, it is looking to me like Judas and the Black Messiah (premium rental services) is second favourite, behind Nomadland, for this year’s Best Picture prize. This is compelling depiction of the Black Panther movement in 1960s Chicago, leading up to the FBI ordered assassination of their leader, Fred Hampton, in 1969. The Feds are helped to achieve their objective by an informant Bill O’Neal who infiltrates the movement. This is a complex story and Shaka King, who co wrote it as well as directed it, does not shy away from showing the violent side of the Black Panthers as well as the injustices that they suffered.

Daniel Kaluuya gives a career best performance as the impassioned Hampton and Lakieth Stanfield impresses as well as the conflicted O’Neal. This not only feels timely with the current prominence of the Black Lives Matter protests but also because of recent films that cover similar ground such as The United States vs Billie Holiday and MLK/FBI as well as The Trial of the Chicago 7 (also nominated for best film) that shows the events in the city 12 months earlier and also features Hampton.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10