Larry Oliver Film Reviews

Film history is full of sequels that no one asked for: Critters 2, Critters 3 , Critters 4 . By no one, I mean no audience member. Generally, sequels are payback time for the producers. They can get them greenlit because the original made a mint - only this time, they’ll get a better cut. They can also get actors who wouldn’t otherwise snag a leading role to star in them. ‘This will showcase what I can do,’ says a would-be heart throb, ‘right before I get killed by the monster.’ When I watch horror films made twenty years ago, I am surprised to see who is in them. Michelle Williams and Joseph Gordon-Levitt starred together in Halloween: H20 Twenty Years Later - that’s the cast of an Oscar nominated movie. Sequels trade on name recognition but that usually means the name of the serial killer or fast-multiplying threat. No one wants to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Halloween: H20 – they want to see Michael Myers. The Craft: Legacy is one of those sequels that I didn’t see coming. It d...

Still courtesy of A24 Films (US) / Mubi (UK) For her eighth film as writer-director, Priscilla , Sofia Coppola re-tells the true story of young Priscilla Beaulieu’s relationship with the controlled and controlling pill popper, Elvis Aaron Presley, singing star and icon, characterised in the movie by a twitchy leg that, when he sits down, never stops moving. Constrained to some extent by being unable to use Elvis’ tunes – he is only shown performing a Jerry Lee Lewis number, ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On’ – Coppola concentrates on the limited viewpoint of her titular protagonist, who first is introduced to Elvis in 1958 and, after spending some time with him at parties hosted in his house while he is on military service in Wiesbaden, Germany finds herself left behind then summoned by him, then left behind and so forth. Referring to her as Cilla or ‘Satnin’ – weirdly the nickname Elvis also gave to his late mother – the star attracts and repels Priscilla in equal measure until she final...