Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  The first laugh in a comedy is the hardest. The longer you wait for it, the more impatient you get. When there is something vaguely humorous, you begrudgingly acknowledge it but don’t enter the party spirit. You wait instead for the introduction of a comedy element at a different register, a Robin Williams at full blast or Steve Martin turning up as a dentist in Little Shop of Horrors (the musical). If it doesn’t happen, the film becomes tedious. Bad comedies are like food that has gone stale, wine that has turned to vinegar or a box set on VHS format left close to a magnet. No, no, no. So how do you get that first laugh? First off, you establish a convention: a Jaws -like scenario at the beginning of Airplane , a serious documentary voice at the beginning of Take The Money and Run . If you try to be funny right from the first beat, you will fail – and fail hard. So Ghostbusters (1984) begins with a ghost attack in a public library. Then you bring in the comedians. They make b...

  Pictured : Better days behind her. Elizabeth Sparkle ( Demi Moore ) contemplates life in her luxury apartment in a scene from the body horror film and Cannes Palme D'Or competitor, ' The Substance ', written and directed by Coralie Fargeat . Still courtesy of Mubi (UK, US) Caution: Spoilers At its second screening in Cannes, writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s ‘living your best life’ body horror flick The Substance had patrons heading for the exit early. It is extreme – and none too subtle – about the extent to which one should sacrifice oneself for the cause of reinvention, or more particularly, to have a younger body to use as one shouldn’t. In her first leading role in a horror film, the 1990s-star Demi Moore ‘puts her back’ – and pretty much everything else - to enable a younger doppelganger, played by Margaret Qualley, to be born. Expect this to be on Quentin Tarantino’s top ten list for the year – but not Barack Obama’s. Fargeat’s titles are in block capitals and s...