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 : Tech billionaire Slater King ( Channing Tatum ) admires his guest Frida ( Naomi Ackie ) in a scene from the luxury island thriller, ' Blink Twice ', co-written and directed by  Zoë Kravitz . Still courtesy of MGM-Amazon Studios (US) / Warner Bros. (UK) What is the deal with a private island? Does someone even have the right to sell an entire landmass? How much of the surrounding ocean count as the owner’s waters, for fishing and such? Don’t they have an obligation to provide basic services, not just for guests but their staff as well? These were some of the questions that occurred to me after watching Blink Twice , an American takedown of toxic masculinity written (with E.T. Feigenbaum) and directed by actress-turned-director Zoë Kravitz. However, these are not the questions that interest her. Kravitz focusses on one: how can men get away with abusing women? She looks at what gives them licence, the enablers. Wealth is one. Bullied women living their worst life...