Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  How disappointing must it have been for co-writer-director Patty Jenkins not to see her superhero sequel, Wonder Woman 1984 in movie theatres in the summer of 2020? The commercial success and audience love shown to her 2017 movie Wonder Woman inspired her to make a follow-up that asks different questions. Jenkins really pays homage to the television series starring Lynda Carter that ran from 1975 to 1979 but does so on a scale that can only be done in a movie. While other big budget movies were moved to 2021, Jenkins allowed her sequel to be released simultaneously in theatres and on home streaming in December 2020, just before the mass closure of movie theatres across Europe. The audience response to the movie has been mixed – if you trust Rotten Tomatoes. The cinema box office numbers really don’t tell the full story either. According to Box Office Mojo, its current international gross is $118,200,000 , but it hasn’t opened in a number of territories yet, and in the United Stat...

Pictured : 'Look Ma, no vapes.' Lucy ( Dakota Johnson ) re-connects with John ( Chris Evans ), her actor-waiter, in a scene from writer-director Celine Song's exploration of dating amongst the cash rich, ' Materialists '. Still courtesy of A24 (US), Stage 6/Sony (UK) ‘I’ve heard every reason to get married. I promise I won’t be shocked by any of them.’ (Lucy Mason, Materialists) Romance isn’t dead, just commodified. We don’t marry for love, rather a mixture of desire, loneliness and wanting to be safe. White weddings, anniversary meals, Valentine Days are all for show. These gestures can make couples more anxious than necessary. The expense, enforced remembrance, purchases that one regrets even as the order is placed online. Romance is as cardboard as the detritus left after one bulk order. The more non-recyclable material we hide in the bin, the more genuinely unhappy we are. One of us might be pleased, the other less so. Celine Song, the writer-director of P...