Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Just what exactly does a great film like The Invitation have to do to get a decent cinema release? Of all the titles that I have seen so far in this series, Karyn Kusama’s fourth film as director is the one that left me with a WTF expression on my aged, bony face.   It is bold. It has a bad-ass, exploding-in-all-directions finale. It’ll make you think of The Purge crossed with Blue Ruin . Wouldn’t you want to see that? Ostensibly it is a dinner party movie. We all know how those turn out. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie , Le Dîner de Cons , My Dinner with Andre – no prix fixe menu there! It is also a Los Angeles movie, and in LA they do things a little differently, going overboard on rituals. When you can’t find God, you look for something else. The omens are bad for Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his new girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi).   Driving to the house where Will once lived with his ex-wife, Eden (Tammy Blanchard), they hit a coyote that Will...

  Pictured : 'You like the form. You don't like the content.' Agnes ( Eva Victor ) teaching Vladimir Nabokov's taboo-busting novel 'Lolita' in a scene from the film, ' Sorry, Baby ', written and directed by Eva Victor . Still courtesy of A24 (US) / Picturehouse Entertainment (UK)  Lately, people wishing to display virtue have been pictured holding cats. You have to feel sorry for the cats. They have no idea of the purpose into which they have been co-opted. Why am I being held so high? Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, has been pictured with a cat, with the intention of mocking the tyrant President Trump - currently Newsom’s full-time job. On the poster of her acclaimed film, Sorry, Baby , the writer-director-actor Eva Victor holds a cat she has liberated from houselessness in an apologetic way. ‘I’m sorry, cat,’ her character, Agnes, seems to say, ‘but I need you.’ People say things to cats that they wouldn’t say to a human being but having place...

  Pictured : 'I took four trains to get here and we're seeing the movie.' Eden ( Ilana Glazer , right) prepares the heavily pregnant Dawn ( Michelle Buteau ) for entertainment in the laugh-out-loud comedy, ' Babes ', written by Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz and directed by Pamela Adlon . Still courtesy of Neon (US), Universal Pictures (UK) The misleadingly titled Babes is a comedy about female friendship in which two young women support each other during pregnancy, one in marriage, the other outside it. For a film as funny as it is, it did not attract a wide audience. I put it down to the advertising: the thinner of the two women, Eden ( Ilana Glazer , who co-wrote the screenplay with Josh Rabinowitz ) stares at a positive pregnancy test while her friend Dawn ( Michelle Buteau ) looks on. If I take it at face value, so what? Contrast it with the poster for Baby Boom – Diane Keaton in a business suit holding a baby - where you can see the potential for comedy. (‘I ca...