Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Pictured : Angela ( Olivia Wilde , centre) and Joe ( Seth Rogen , standing) listen to their guests with interest in a scene from the marital comedy, ' The Invite ', adapted from the 2020 Spanish film, ' Sentimental ' by screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormack and directed by Olivia Wilde . Still courtesy of A24 (US) / Black Bear (UK) The Invite , adapted by screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormack from Cesc Gay’s 2020 Spanish film, Sentimental (English title ‘The People Upstairs’), feels like a personal project for actress-turned-director Olivia Wilde. Wilde was publicly humiliated by or on behalf of her estranged husband Jason Sudeikis in the run-up to the release of her 2022 psychological thriller, Don’t Worry Darling , whose request for child custody was served to her while she was on stage at Comic Con. Wilde knows something of the pain of a relationship that has run its course. She channels this into her filmmaking. The bulk of The Invite is set ...

  Pictured : Violette ( Laurence Leboeuf , left ) and Florence ( Karine Gonthier-Hyndman , right ) in a scene from the Montreal-set comedy, ' Two Women ' (' Deux Femmes en or '), a remake of a 1970 film written by Catherine  Léger   and directed by Chloé Robichaud . Still courtesy of Icon Film Distribution (UK)   The Canadian film industry supports many first-time feature-film directors. However, it does not primarily work to commercial imperatives. Telefilm Canada’s 2024/25 annual report contrasts $81.7 million spent on Canadian film production in a financial year with $23.5 million earned by Canadian films in ticket sales. Success is measured in terms of prestige. One of the films singled out is the 2025 remake of the 1970 French language Canadian film, Deux Femmes En Or (English title Two Women ), which won the Special Jury Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. This film has received a welcome release in the UK, albeit not in the major cinema chains (Cin...

  Contains spoilers Co-writer-director Nia DaCosta’s reboot-sequel, Candyman , is a literate horror movie, if not entirely a smart one. At its heart, it tells a variation of the story of an artist, Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul Mateen II) who sells his soul to the Devil. There is a bee sting and slow disfigurement. Slowly but surely Anthony becomes the titular figure, with the finishing touch, a hook for a hand, administered in a surprising left-field way. Meanwhile, equally surprising, he is not associated with a series of deaths of those who took the Candyman challenge: to say Candyman’s name five times in front of a mirror. This invariably ends with the spectral Candyman, the ghost of a mutilated African American appearing the material world and hacking to death all those who summoned him. Anything for an eternity’s sleep. Candyman first featured in a story, ‘The Forbidden’, written by British author Clive Barker, about a photographer, Helen, who becomes fascinated by neighbour...

American remakes of French language feel-good hits usually lose something in translation. The Upside , director Neil Burger’s 2017 remake of the 2011 film The Intouchables , couldn’t reproduce the audience-pleasing relationship between characters played by Omar Sy and François Cluzot – as carer and quadriplegic respectively – because racial dynamics in France are different from those in the US. It is hard to watch Kevin Hart (Sy’s substitute) in a subservient role, especially given that Hollywood has finally allowed African American actors to flourish. Bryan Cranston (filling in for Cluzot) has also had his best years on screen, so we don’t feel his character’s loss so acutely.  At any rate, Burger and his screenwriter John Hartmere did themselves a disservice by sticking slavishly to director Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s original and relegating Nicole Kidman to a thankless supporting role. Similarly, The Next Three Days doesn’t pack the punch of the French thriller, Anythin...

  Why re-tell a story in another language? You can bring it a wider audience, revealing its mainstream resonance. You can fashion it into a vehicle for a talented Hollywood star. You can expand the boundaries of a national cinema by appropriating a story line from another culture. Nadav Lapid’s 2014 film, The Kindergarten Teacher , has not been seen widely outside Israel, its country of origin, and France outside of the festival circuit. It is well-regarded and received distribution in Canada and Argentina. Lapid himself has achieved festival acclaim for his 2019 film, Synonymes , which won the top prize (the Golden Bear) at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. The English language audience’s unfamiliarity with the film made it ripe for adaptation by an American filmmaker. That task fell to writer-director Sara Colangelo, whose debut film, Little Accidents , was also first seen in 2014. Looking at the trailer for Lapid’s film, Colangelo’s adaptation appears to follow the plot, e...

  In her newest film, Miss Bala , director Catherine Hardwicke gives a Mexican thriller a Hollywood make-over. Normally, it’s Hollywood stars going for a Brazilian, but who am I to argue? Hardwicke isn’t the obvious choice to make a film about a beauty queen contender who gets drawn into a life of crime – she makes films about young people, by which I mean about people under the legal drinking age, though in Twilight not under the age of drinking blood. Her early films – Thirteen , Lords of Dogtown , The Nativity Story and Twilight – gave prominent roles to young actors like Nikki Reed, Emile Hirsch, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, some of whom made it in Hollywood. Her last film about female friendship, Miss You Already , starring Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore, was atypical, though not for a Hollywood women’s flick – it featured one woman trying to start a family whilst the other discovers they have breast cancer. The Mexican original was releas...

  You wait years for a Coppola movie and two come out at once. Paris Can Wait , the travelogue, sorry road movie starring Diane Lane and Arnaud Viard and written and directed by Eleanor Coppola will be the subject of a later entry in this series. First we have The Beguiled , written for the screen and directed by Sofia Coppola, Eleanor’s talented daughter. The Beguiled is Coppola’s sixth feature film, after The Virgin Suicides , Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, Somewhere and The Bling Ring . You will have seen or heard of the second one, you know Bill Murray goes to Japan to make a whiskey commercial and hangs out with Scarlett Johansson, before she became Black Widow. This is typical Coppola – not big drama. She has also done TV – Murray asked her to helm his Netflix special, A Very Murray Christmas . Great title, but I remember Scrooged , man, a very underwhelming Christmas comedy. She has also directed opera – La Traviata – in Milan, with costumes by Valentino. Some...

Pictured : 'What do you mean you can't manage three fillet, one hanger?' Ava ( Chase Sui Wonders ) does battle with the Fisherman in a Hellish Kitchen in a scene from the 2025 re-quel, ' I Know What You Did Last Summer ', a horror film with a hook, co-written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson , working with characters from the 1997 original. Photograph: Brooke Rushton . Still courtesy of Columbia Pictures. Contains spoilers By most objective measures, the 2025 reboot of the 1997 horror film, I Know What You Did Last Summer , fails to deliver on expectations. There are ‘comfortable’ horror films, where the film works to a template – a serial killer of some type despatches cast members at regular intervals as a form of punishment. Tension is periodic. Social issues are rarely discussed. There are also ‘uncomfortable’ horror films, where trauma is felt in the mise-en-scene . The characters may be responsible for the horror we witness. The film is heavy with ex...

  Pictured : Julia ( Kamila Urzedowska ) after a night on the town in a scene from ' Przepiękne! ' (Beautiful), a Polish ensemble comedy-drama adapted from Karoline Herfurth 's 2022 film, ' Wunderschön ' by writer   Katia Sarnowska and director Katia Priwieziencew . Still courtesy of Magnetes Pictures / Warner Bros . Przepiękne ( Beautiful ), adapted from Karoline Herfurth’s 2022 German box-office hit Wunderschön by writer Katia Sarnowska and director Katia Priwieziencew is an interesting example of Polish commercial cinema. Not only does it appear to be a faithful remake with a near-identical advertising campaign – a poster in which members of the ensemble cast appear in separate rectangles. It also illustrates Polish commercial cinema’s attitude towards its citizens. The problem is not with the state nor with society. It is with you. If only you stop being selfish, then life would be better. It is a film without same sex love, ethnic tensions, even abject poverty...