Dearest, Direst, Darkest, Dementia
Dearest, Direst, Darkest, Dementia
26 December 2020
Ryan Reynolds plays Guy in ‘Free Guy’, a simple bank teller in a world that seems to be anything but safe.
The Witches
Release date – 10 December
“One drop of mouse maker in a piece of candy will transform a dirty little child into a mouse in one hour!” – the Grand High Witch
Roald Dahl’s memorable children’s book, The Witches, has returned to the big screen as a dark comedy for families, though this time the fantasy is set in America. The story opens in 1960s Alabama where a grandmother (Octavia Spencer) is raising her newly orphaned grandson. A dark shadow is cast over their growing happiness, though, when the boy captures the attention of a local witch.
What follows is a desperate attempt at evasion that leads grandma and child to a hotel. However, the establishment turns out to be hosting the annual international convention for witches. There, the pair learn from the Grand High Witch herself (Anne Hathaway) of a nefarious plan to transform the world’s children into mice.
The Witches sounds like grim material for a family outing, but in fact, it’s laced with as much fun and laughs veteran director Robert Zemeckis can manage. Though the content might not be scary, there’s still a certain level of creepiness about a world populated by witches, as well as a serious message to be garnered. Dahl’s original warning that all sorts of nefarious evil can lurk behind a nice exterior is still one children should be well aware of.
Free Guy
Release date – 10 December ”
.jpg&width=300&height=375)
Guy: “You ever think there’s got to be more?”
Buddy: “More than what?”
Guy: “The stuff we do day after day.”
Buddy: “Literally not once.”
Ryan Reynolds enters as Guy, a simple bank teller in a world that seems to be anything but safe – until the audience realises their key character is in fact an NPC (non-player character) in a worldwide multiplayer online game called Free City.
What transforms Guy’s oblivious existence, though, is the decision by programmers Milly and Keys to upload an additional piece of software that allows him to achieve self-awareness. Soon Guy is no longer a background bank employee, but an everyman that’s attracting international attention. However, his new-found notoriety isn’t sustainable for the franchise and so publisher Antoine (Taika Waititi) decides the game must go offline. This means our mild-mannered NPC must transform into the sort of hero Free City needs if his new life is to survive.
Free Guy is a classic comedy-action that actually addresses a serious existential question. “Buddy, if we’re not real,” Guy asks his best friend, “doesn’t that mean nothing you do matters?” If the world is going to forget us as soon as our brief existence is over, what does it matter if we were alive at all? In this quest-style film, Guy finds his meaning in the love that grows up between himself and Milly. Yet her life is ultimately as finite as his. If we’re going to find lasting meaning, it’s going to have to be in relationship with someone that can guarantee life long after our program has run its course.
The Midnight Sky
Release date – 10 December 
“Come in Ether, this is Barbo Observatory. Are you receiving this? Is anyone out there?”
George Clooney directs and stars in a post-apocalyptic science fiction film that firmly places our responsibility to others over our rights as an individual.
Augustine Lofthouse is a lonely scientist based in a remote Arctic research station with his daughter. The emergence of a mysterious global catastrophe, though, leads them to believe that they are the last people on earth – and therein lies their responsibility. Ether, a spaceship that was supposed to be the last hope for humanity, is on its return voyage to earth. Augustine and his daughter must brave freezing temperatures, increasingly toxic air and the dangers of the arctic landscape to reach an antenna in order to warn its astronauts … not to return.
Clooney has described The Midnight Sky as Gravity meets The Revenant. It includes all of the harrowing elements of zero-G tragedy matched against a frantic survival story. However, the overwhelming theme is the sacrifice of the few for the many. Augustine will do anything to help his daughter survive, but at the same time recognises that they will have to sacrifice their own safety in the service of humanity as a whole. It’s an unusual lesson, considering the highly individual storylines that tend to crowd cinema release schedules. Yet its value lies once again in reminding us of humanity’s most significant storyline: one man must sacrifice himself for all if all hope to have a chance at living.
The Father
Release date – 26 December 
“I don’t know what she’s cooking up against me but she’s cooking something up.”
The Father is the sort of film that will move anyone with an aging parent to tears. Oscar winners Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman star in a story about a man in his 80s who is slowly falling under the spell of dementia.
Anthony refuses all assistance until his daughter, Anne, employs a nurse so that he can remain in his flat, and then moves in to keep him company. However, as the plot unfolds it becomes increasingly obvious that something is not right with the world, and this human drama begins to take on the characteristics of a psychological thriller. Anthony is bright and cheery most of the time, but his failure to understand what is going on around him leads him to begin to question his new living arrangements, his loved ones, even his own sanity.
The Father is heart-breaking and ground-breaking at the same time because the story is told entirely from the perspective of what Anthony perceives, placing us directly in the mind of someone suffering from dementia. Watching Hopkins’ character try and rationally explain his world to himself is both disturbing and emotionally moving, right down to the point that he ceases to communicate because he knows his concerns will fall on deaf ears. As a film, it also frames the Bible’s testament that we are powerless to prevent the passing away of all things. Best to remember our maker, “… before the silver cord is severed and the golden bowl is broken.”
Comments
No comments yet - be the first.