Review
DULCIE PEARCE
Fast X review: Fast & Furious’ 10th instalment is high-speed, hilarious motoring madness – so strap in
Fast X
(12A) 141mins
★★★★☆
PUT the pedal to the metal – it’s the 10th instalment from the Fast & Furious crew – a high-speed and hilarious two-and-a-half hours of motoring madness.
We’re taken back ten years, where F&F veteran Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O’Conner (the late Paul Walker) are doing the “vault theft” in Fast Five.
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Having hooked a steel bank-safe to their cars, they drive it frantically through buildings — killing the gangland boss that owned it in the process.
Unfortunately for the good guys, a very angry son was left behind in the form of Dante Reyes (Aquaman’s Jason Momoa).
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He is an all-singing-all-dancing psychopath on a mission to destroy the “family” with a huge carbon footprint.
And so starts Dante’s assault on the team, including Dom’s wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), brother Jakob (John Cena), sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) — and double act Tej (Ludacris) and Roman (Tyrese Gibson).
The relentless attacks include chasing a giant ball- bomb through the streets of Rome, racing through the busy streets of Rio and being attached to helicopters while on a sunny version of Spaghetti Junction.
Nothing is sacred in this first bit of the two-part finale, so you have to make a choice — slip your brain into cruise control and allow the insanity to wash over you, or take it seriously.
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And no one involved in the film is doing the latter, so I’d strongly advise going along for the ride.
Giant ball-bomb
When en route around the world you’ll see Brie Larson’s 2016 Oscar win flash before her eyes in her scenes with muscleman boss Alan Ritchson.
Also, Dame Helen Mirren doing an impression of an EastEnders market stall owner and calling the cat-bum-lipped Vin Diesel “Me darlin’” and “Duckie”.
But mostly you’ll enjoy the surprisingly superb turn by Momoa, who plays the flamboyant criminal mastermind with such dark humour, he becomes a buff version of Joaquin Phoenix’s The Joker.
He’s absolutely laugh-out-loud brilliant.
And while Diesel still has the acting range of a flat battery — and no one ever wears a seatbelt yet they come out of collisions unscathed — it’s still one hell of a ride on the big screen.
So strap yourself in.
Beau Is Afraid
(15) 178mins
★★★☆☆
IF there is one rule to be obeyed in Ari Aster films – it is don’t go in the loft.
Sadly, it is the moment the genius director of Midsommar takes the audience there, that Beau Is Afraid jumps all sharks.
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In the attic there’s a huge throbbing mess that really should have stayed in Aster’s deranged mind.
Up until that point I was still giving this comic satire the benefit of my many doubts.
Joaquin Phoenix plays the seemingly paranoid Beau whose journey to see his domineering mother is beset by one near-death experience after another.
There is a lot of humour to be found in contrasting the conflict-averse Beau with a violent world, containing a naked knifeman, a killer spider and a creepy family.
As much as he tries to avoid the mayhem, trouble is always just around the next corner.
While Phoenix fully throws himself into the madness, I was exhausted by three hours of Aster’s surreal ideas.
Some of them would have been better off cut out and stored under the eves.
- Grant Rollings
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
(PG) 111mins
★★★★★
A REALLY good coming-of-age film reminds us just how tricky coming-of-age can be.
This adaptation of Judy Blume’s famous 1970 novel does exactly that.
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It is the story of 11-year-old Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) who has to move from her home in New York to New Jersey with her scatty artist mum (Rachel McAdams) and soulful dad (Benny Safdie).
Being taken away from her beloved gran (Kathy Bates), Margaret falls in with the local girls but this soon inflicts concerns about her lack of curves, lack of bra, lack of periods and lack of experience with the opposite sex.
So Margaret – who has no religion after her Christian mum caused a family row when she married her Jewish dad – starts praying to her own version of God for these things to come immediately.
Writer, director and producer Kelly Fremon Craig does a perfect job with this tender tale of the battles of becoming a woman.
All the performances are charming, without being sickly sweet – and with a soundtrack so good it matches Forrest Gump, this film is perfect for all the family.
THE OTHER FELLOW
(15) 80mins
★★★★☆
IT'S estimated that half of humanity has seen at least one 007 flick.
But for anyone born with the name James Bond, it can be a blessing or a curse.
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This is the premise of director Matthew Bauer's documentary The Other Fellow, out in cinemas and available to stream now.
The 80-minute, 15-certificate documentary is full of quirky characters, from 007 obsessive Gunnar James Bond Schafer in Sweden who drinks exclusively Bollinger champagne, to a computer programmer who says having the moniker is an "outstanding" chat-up line and even helps him blag-free cinema tickets.
But it's not all just fun and games for those named after 007 writer Ian Fleming's fictional British spy.
Fans will be left shaken and stirred by the dark twists in this documentary, so shocking that not even Bond baddie Ernst Stavro Blofeld could have come up with them.
A theatre director who is featured claims his life is being ruined by his name.
'Licence To Thrill'
And several men detail troubling encounters with the police after telling them they are called James Bond.
They include an American who was wrongly accused of murder and spent 60 days in jail for simply stating his name.
But a woman, who remains anonymous for her own safety, reveals she used the name to finally escape her abusive ex-husband after he threatened to kidnap their child and tracked her down multiple times as she moved between different UK cities. She explains that choosing to call her son James
Bond was the "craziest, sanest idea" she ever had.
Meanwhile, another Bond, from London, had to change his last name to Hart because of the "baggage" that came with the character.
There's also a surprising story behind how Ian Fleming "stole" the name for his legendary womaniser from a "very quiet" birdwatcher. The matter nearly ended up in court after the ornithologist's wife threatened to sue Fleming for defamation, before they struck an agreement.
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Wild and whimsical, this bizarre documentary won't fail to impress. It clearly has a Licence To Thrill.
- Josh Saunders
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