The ‘Barbie Cutie Reveal Doll’ topped Christmas 2022’s best selling toy list. Better watch out Barb, there’s a new doll in town – one primed for a TikTok takeover. Come Christmas ‘23, M3gan may well top every child’s list, never mind the $10k price tag. She does it all. She sings, she dances, she murders anyone who threatens the untainted bliss of her primary user. She’s also the titular star of Gerard Johnstone’s new Blumhouse horror. Not that scares are top of the agenda here. It’s spectacularly camp fluff.
There’s extreme intensity to The Menu even before Ralph Fiennes’ delectably unhinged Chef Slowik first twists his kitchen timer into motion. Said timer relentlessly ticks as things ramp up further still. On and on it goes. Just there. Right at the back of Todd Weaver’s intricately mixed soundscape. Around it, this a banquet of a film. One best enjoyed as blind as can be achieved. The more known the less flavoursome. Even within the confines of the film’s runtime, such is true. While a fiendishly appetising starter gives way to a reasonably unsavoury main, the desert threatens to leave diners wanting, the sweet taste of vengeance not quite scored.
Tom Hanks does some spectacular growling in A Man Called Otto. This being Marc ‘Quantum of Solace’ Foster’s soupy remake of the acclaimed Swedish dramedy A Man Called Ove, which was itself an adaptation of the book by Fredrik Backman. English translations of Scandi hits rarely justify their own existence and Otto, with a tone’s as chaotic as your local neighbourhood’s Facebook group and excess of saccharine, is no exception. And yet, it’s a beautifully cast affair. Oddly touching too. Not to forget the ample chuckles, some black as charcoal. Plus, there really is no getting past that spectacular growling.
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