Catching up on films I didn’t see at the cinema carries on and looks like it will do for sometime to come. Next up is “Can you ever forgive me?” Marielle Heller’s take on the true life story of Lee Israel a frustrated writer who finds a career forging letters of famous literary figures.

Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant turn in oscar nominated performances as Israel and her friend and accomplice Jack Hock.

It’s a fascinating story and McCarthy, better known for her comedy roles, shows she has much more to her, turning in a fantastic performance as the shy, frustrated, lonely Israel, a women who struggles to develop any kind of relationship and is hugely frustrated by the seeming success of, in her opinion, very average writers peddling rubbish.

Grant supports her well portraying her suave, fantasist friend who is equally vulnerable and lonely.

It is a surprisingly charming story with two character’s you warm to for all of there loneliness and desperation, there is a charm and sweetness to them and their relationship. The story intrigues throughout and is nicely paced and told.

The story is a great example of someone with talent but lacked belief in it, preferring to hide behind the stories and words of others and McCarthy really shines in the lead role. Worth a watch and if you don’t like it can you ever forgive me?

Strange times for us all so I’m starting to watch films I never got around to at the cinema, I’m sure there will be all kinds of random choices to come over the coming weeks.

First up the very average Second Act, I’ve always quite liked Jennifer Lopez on screen and she’s absolutely fine in this and there’s the problem, the whole film is fine and all a bit meh..

It’s the classic underdog story, with pretty much every genre cliche box ticked.. it has its moments with a bit of a twist and a surprising incident with some doves, but they are few and far between, the rest is typical Cinderella story stuff, girl wants more, girl gets makeover (background rather than physical in this case), girl proves worth, charade falls down, all works out well in the end..

It wasn’t horrible, but it was formulaic and not funny enough but it was at least virus free for 100 minutes, so it does have that.

I’m sure I’ll see some much better films on my range of streaming services over the coming weeks… heck if not, it’s going to be a long time at home!

I’ve said in previous reviews that I really enjoy something based on a true story, something that gives me insight into a subject that I feel I should know more about, so I went into Misbehaviour with high expectations.

Based on the controversial 1970 Miss World competition in which the first coloured winner was crowned, a coloured and white contestent were selected to represent South Africa and the show disrupted by the newly formed Women’s liberation movement.

The accusations of racism, the failure to recognise aparthied and the fledgling womens liberation movement all should provide enough story for a fascinating look at a range of subjects and attitudes from 1970, add to that three strong leading performer’s in Kiera Knightley, Jessie Buckley and Gugu Mbatha Raw and this really should have pressed all the buttons.

Sadly though Misbehaviour really feels like it falls short, instead of providing an interesting insight into events we never really do more than skirt around them, we never find out what drives Knightley’s smart and determined Sally, the story behind Buckley’s commune living liberator Jo or the aims of Mbata Raw’s Grenadine winner Jennifer Hosten.

That’s a real pity as this is a story worth telling, but it feels like the film is never really sure what story it wants to share, Miss World, Women’s liberation or even the story from the contestants side that examines the opportunity it presents them but it only ever, frustratingly, touches upon it.

There are moments were the film tries to spend a little time asking interesting questions, especially in a scene between Sally and Jennifer but they are far to infrequent.

It’s a real pity, with interesting raw material and a talented cast this film should have been much more interesting than it is, but sadly never quite gets beyond a very superficial look at the subject, perhaps a bit like Miss World itself.

I always find a story like this fascinating, the scale of corruption, cover up, how authorities and governments can be influenced and the incredible recklessness that powerful companies will show to protect their business and profits always astound me. All of that is on show in Dark Waters.

The other thing I’m always astounded by is how on earth do I not know these stories? This one focuses on DuPont and a long term legal battle with the people from a town in Wisconsin, a battle carried by one man, Rob Billet (Mark Ruffalo), and is based on Nathaniel Rich’s article in the New York times.

Billet is a “hot shot” lawyer who is visited by a friend of his grandma, Wilbur Tenant (Bill Camp), a farmer whose property is next to a DuPont landfill and is convinced that they are poisoning his land, his cattle and his family.

Dark Waters is an interesting film, its pace is very steady, it wanders off occasionally to explore a family story or a way that the case has impacted the lives of those involved and cleverly includes the grey area that comes with a town taking to court not only its largest employer but a company who’s fingerprints are all over the town.

The pacing and occasional change of story focus may be off putting to some but I think they are very deliberate decisions to show just how long and slowly the case has moved (20 years and still going on) and exploring the impacts of those delays on peoples lives.

The story is an interesting one and very much worth telling, it’s understated and patiently told and that patience maybe an issue for some but if like me these kind of stories interest you, then you’ll enjoy this.

When I saw the trailer for this I liked the premise and thought it could be interesting. An american remake of the Scandinavian original Force Majure, we see Will Ferrell and Julie Luis-Dreyfus as Pete and Billie, a couple on a Swiss Ski holiday with their two young sons.

The story suggests an undercurent, a problem between the two, he distracted by his mobile phone and her keen to remind him, but the problem is we never really fully understand what’s behind the characters behaviour or were they are heading.

That problem isn’t just with the characters, the whole film is unclear in what it wants to be. Its trailers suggest a comedy, but don’t go expecting that, Downhill is not a comedy and doesn’t really try to be, it’s much more a study of two people unsure of their relationship, unsure of their place in the world and unsure of their future together and you can feel that sense of hopelessness throughout the film and it feels like it catches that well.

The thing with Downhill is it’s a film that is trying to be clever, do something smart, trying to explore the desperation of people who feel trapped in life and in their relationship, feeling they could be doing more to live their “best life” and that film is in there somewhere (in its original source Force Majure I’m told). But it’s not in Downhill, which in reality never gets near delivering, not funny enough for those wanting comedy and not clear enough for those wanting a serious examination of Pete and Billies relationship.

Downhill isn’t really clear about the kind of film it wants to be and that shows in something that promises a good story but never gets close enough to delivering it.

The thing with making a Sonic film is that, from memory, you don’t really have much to work with, there’s not a big back story, he’s a blue hedgehog who runs fast collecting rings, from there the canvas is pretty clear, so what do you do with everyone’s favourite blue hedgehog on the big screen?

Well it seems you make an ok adventure film, now while I’m not really the target audience, I do have fond memories of the game so gave it a spin and to be honest while it won’t live long in the memory it was plenty enjoyable enough while I was there.

We follow Sonic on a quest to reach a new world, along the way he loses and must retrieve his rings while been pursued by Jim Carrey’s Dr Robotnik, pretty much the Sonic staple story line.

The screen creation of Sonic is solid enough and is well voiced by Ben Schwarz and alongside his companion Tom, played by James Marsden, there’s plenty of witty lines and some fun set pieces as they look to retrieve the lost rings.

Jim Carrey, Carrey’s Robotnik up in exactly the way you’d expect, with plenty of manic physical comedy alongside delivering his own bad guy funnies.

Sonic is pretty middling stuff, but entertaining enough to fill its short run time and plenty of kids in a packed Sunday showing were having a great time, harmless, enjoyable enough, blue hedgehog fun.

Comedy is hard, making something funny is perhaps the hardest thing in film, absolute gems like Knives Out and Jojo Rabbit show what you can do if you take it seriously and use humour to tell a proper story.

But even films that seem fluffy can get it really right, last years Instant Family and Fighting with my Family had so much heart to them they were wonderful.

But they are rare and let’s be clear, Like a Boss gets nowhere near them. I didn’t hate it but it is so predictable and formulaic, it’s a comedy you’ve seen 100 times before, a comedy about lifelong friends, something comes between them, friendship tested and well I’m sure you can figure out the rest.

The film isn’t without laughs and in Rose Byrne and Tiffany Haddish you have two excellent comedic actors who have both made much better things than this, but bring a nice central chemistry to proceedings, while they never manage to elevate it, I can’t think of a pairing who could’ve made it better, but certainly a few that would’ve made it much worse.

I am a huge fan of Rose Byrne and think she is an often ignored but hugely talented actor in both comedic and dramatic roles.

In the end Like a Boss is an inoffensive, occasionally funny, often bland comedy, Byrne and Haddish are an enjoyable watch and if you want a handful of laughs for 90 minutes on a wet afternoon this’ll probably do and then be quickly forgotten.

Although this was released in April 2019, I only saw it this weekend and what a surprising delight of a film it is.

What I’d expected was a fun and frothy comedy focused on our central character Kayla, who is coming to the end of her (miserable) time in middle school. However, that isn’t this film, what we actually get is a touching and heart warming struggle of a girl trying to make the best of what life is throwing at her, daughter of a single father, quiet, painfully shy and introverted. But she is also smart, funny, articulate and creative, trying to share this other her via her youtube channel, offering heart felt advice to her peers, but advice she struggles to follow herself.

The important part of the story though is she doesn’t let her reality define her, she never feels sorry for herself, she remains positive and forward looking, hopeful that high school will bring her the positive life she craves.

As a parent watching this it’s hard not to feel for Kayla, brilliant played by Elsie Fisher, you want to reach in to the screen, hug her and tell her it’ll all be OK. But she never wants that, she wants to grab life and make it better.

Her chance to step out of her Eighth Grade hell comes during a high school orientation day, which almost back fires

But in the end, this is a positive story, sensitively sharing the experience of growing up in an always connected world, but never judges that technology and accepts it as part of life.

The film never wallows and begs for sympathy and is always positive. Writer and director Bo Burnham has created a film full of heart and charm and something so much better than the teen comedy I was expecting, a truly lovely film, go seek it out.

A bit like with the recent David Copperfield adaptation, I’m not familiar with the source novel but I’m told this is a lot more of a traditional take on Austen’s early rom-com.

Not knowing the story certainly affected the first 30 minutes of the film, I spent much of it not really knowing, or much caring about the characters in front of me, but here’s the thing, as the story unfolded I was increasingly pulled in to Emma’s world. A world of privilege, entitlement, wealth and characters with little real responsibility meaning their world revolves around the trivia of matchmaking and gossip.

Emma is at the heart of it, a world she wants to influence and control, partly for entertainment, partly to help, while petty jealousy raises its head occasionally, it’s mostly innocent meddling in the love lives of friends and for Emma the need to bat away unwanted admiration.

Emma’s life is filled with innocent meddling, until it isn’t, her life starts to unravel as relationships don’t follow her grand plan and eventually she over steps a mark, with an arrogant unpleasant turn.

Although it started slowly, as I got drawn into the story the more I enjoyed its quirky sweetness and innocence. Anya Taylor-Joy was beautifully engaging as the titular character and was surrounded by equally enjoyable supporting performances, Mia Goth’s Harriet particularly and turns from Bill Nighy and Miranda Hart doing, well, Bill Nighy and Miranda Hart !

It’s beautifully shot and while it is unlikely to be discussed for its unique take on an Austen novel, it is more than enjoyable entertainment.