🎬 "We're in! We're in baby, we're there!"
Titanic (1997). Welcome to the 20th edition of The Reel!
The Reel is a biweekly blog reviewing films, TV and (occasionally) books. If you haven’t already, feel free to subscribe here:
Estimated reading time: 6m 48s.
We did it!
We made it to twenty editions of The Reel, and 104 total reviews!
It’s hardly surprising that this blog has persisted, considering it is essentially just a medium by which I can talk absolute pony to anyone who will listen.
In what may be the most questionable use of my time over lockdown since downloading TikTok, I recently made a directory of all the films (and other things) I’ve reviewed since launching this blog in January.
Did you know that of the 104 pieces reviewed, only eight have received the coveted five stars? 😱
(Presumably you didn’t know that, unless you’ve been cataloguing every one of these reviews for some nefarious reason known only to yourself.)
Even more surprisingly, only seven have received the dreaded one star! 💀
I’ve also been using the opening line of a famous film as the subject line for every newsletter — these are also all listed in the directory. How fun!
I was going to make a bar chart showing the distribution of scores across all the films reviewed to date, but that would be an impressive waste of time even for me.
You can check out a complete list of all The Reel’s reviews here.
And now for a few more!
This week: Witches, woyals, and a qwestionable animated studio head.
👑 One does not simply walk into Windsor.
The Crown: Season 4 (2020), series, created by Peter Morgan.
Watching The Crown could be quite a betrayal of my Irish sensibilities.
Liking it is flirting with national renunciation.
Loving it as much as I did may well be akin to trampling on the graves of Messrs. Collins and de Valera.
The fourth season in this royal reminiscing focuses on Queen Betty the Immortal’s reign between 1977 and 1990, and the emergence as national figures of Margaret Thatcher and Diana Spencer.
Olivia Colman as the Queen is almost a secondary character, and her quietly commanding performance is overshadowed by blinders played by Gillian Anderson (Thatcher) and Emma Corrin (Lady Di).
Anderson suitably chews scenery, and provides a surprising dollop of humour. Herself and her husband are refreshingly dismissive of the customs upheld by the royals, and the frankly ludicrous way that they speak.
(Tip from the cast: to imitate how the royals say “yes”, say the word “ears” in a posh British accent.)
Corrin’s Diana is even more impressive than Anderson. She’s at once shy and powerful, reserved and outspoken. Episode 3, centred on Diana’s new solitary life in Buckingham palace, is the best episode in the series.
Until we’re treated to a similar account of the 20th century Irish republic (The Republic? The Rise? The Pint?), The Crown will have to do.
P.S. Paul Mescal as Michael Collins and Saoirse Ronan as Countess Markievicz, you heard it here first.
Look out for: The trigger warning that comes before three episodes, ahead of distressing scenes of Diana suffering from bulimia. The show’s writers and producers worked with UK eating disorder charity The Beat to implement the warnings, a first for the show.
If you liked this: In last week’s episode of their podcast The High Low (which is now coming to an end 😢) Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton poignantly discuss the impact this series of The Crown may be having on the living members of the royal family.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🧙♀️ I fight like me da as well.
Bewitched (2005), film, directed by Nora Ephron.
There was a time in the mid-2000s where you couldn’t move for Will Ferrell movies.
If you made a comedy in Hollywood, you were contractually obliged to feature him.
Between 2004 and 2006, Ferrell appeared in 14 films:
Even in the more average of vehicles, he can always be depended on for laughs.
Bewitched is one such example. A re-imagining of a classic American TV series of the same name, Ferrell stars alongside Nicole Kidman as a Hollywood actor cast in the witch-themed sitcom alongside *gasp* a real witch!
Kidman is charming as the fish-out-of-water, quirky occultist Isabel. Michael Caine, for once, gives an unconvincing performance as Isabel’s father. I guess even legends have off days.
(Or, in the case of post-2000 Robert De Niro, off decades.)
Ferrell is hardly stretched with a character that could be swapped with any of the other films from this purple patch in his career, but with scenes like the one below, that’s no bad thing.
Sometimes in life, all we need is amiable people overcoming non-fatal, fantastical obstacles in an entertaining way.
With that in mind, Bewitched is a pleasing concoction.
Look out for: Kristin Chenoweth as Isabel’s friend Maria is a casting for the musical fans — she’s best known for originating the role of Glinda in the stage musical Wicked. Which I only know from watching Glee. Rachel singing “Defying Gravity” 😩 Kurt never stood a chance.
If you liked this: Nicole Kidman’s hilarious first appearance on The Tonight Show is the best clip involving Jimmy Fallon on YouTube. Will Ferrell is at his best when improvising — watch the bloopers from Anchorman and Step Brothers for proof.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
⏩ Quickies
Short and snappy reviews for a short and snappy time:
Life As We Know It (2010, film, dir. Greg Berlanti): ⭐⭐
This film is so unremarkable that I actually can’t remember anything about it. And I watched it last week. I thought it was called either How It Is Now or The Way We Live until I googled it 30 seconds ago. In fact, it is so remarkably unremarkable that I think, in a way, it’s unforgettable. How forgettable this film is, will forever be unforgettable to me. You dig?
Saving Mr. Banks (2013, film, dir. John Lee Hancock): ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Was Walt Disney a nazi? That thought did (and continues to) live rent-free in my head while watching Saving Mr. Banks. If no, then this is a delightful film about the origins of one of my favourite films as a child, Mary Poppins. If yes, then this is a delightful film about a nazi.
Jack Whitehall: Travels With My Father: Season 4 (2020, series, cre. Jack Whitehall): ⭐⭐
So scripted that it may as well be a sitcom, this “travel documentary” series follows my girlfriend’s favourite comedian (and thus, my sworn enemy) as he travels Australia with his dad. I’ve learned more about the land Down Under from Irish millennials’ Instagram stories than I did here. Also he’s not even that good-looking, or charismatic, or successful really, and what’s with his beard, and does he even have his own blog?
📃 Quote of the Week(s)
“There she meets several twisted and perverted older predators who seduce the vulnerable, helpless young Emily as we follow her induction into sensual pleasures.”
If this was any more on the nose it would be a nostril. In The Crown, a young (and *ahem* “fictional”) Prince Andrew describes the plot of his actress fiancée’s latest film, with considerable relish.
If you ever need cheering up, the disgraced royal’s interview with BBC is always hilariously engrossing:
📅 Previously, in pop culture…
Landmark events from the last two weeks in film and TV histoire:
Nov 15 - In 2019, Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix becomes the first R-rated film to earn $1 billion worldwide.
Nov 17 - Martin Scorsese (1942), Danny DeVito and Lorne Michaels (both 1944) are born. Big day for old white men!
Nov 20 - Drew Barrymore at age 7 hosts Saturday Night Live in 1982.
Nov 21 - Iconic horror film Frankenstein is released in 1931, starring Boris Karloff as the monster, directed by James Whale and based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel.
✅ Th-th-that’s all, folks.
Thank you very much for reading!
My thanks to Deon Don this week for his constructive feedback, which led to the inclusion of the descriptor and subscribe button at the beginning of the email!
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Thanks again, and I’ll see you in two weeks!
xxx
Previous Reels:
🎬 Nov 12 - Trial of the Chicago 7, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Heathers.
🎬 Oct 28 - Scream, The Witches, Let The Right One In, Hubie Halloween.