The 95th Academy Awards are here at last and beckon the end of yet another staggeringly long awards season. After three turbulent years at the multiplex, dare we say it, this year feels like business as usual may well be back in action.
With a hearty eleven nods to its name, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a hot (dog) favourite to win everything, everywhere all at once – or, rather, over three hours – but has major competition from BAFTA favourites All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin.
Only time can tell as to who will actually come out on top but there’s always fun to be had in the pre-match guessing game…
It’s with a weary competency that the latest entry in Marvel’s difficult second era fuels one more trudge through the studio’s now gluttonous cinematic universe. Apologies: multiverse. This is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. An exposition dump of a film as visually ugly as it is a waste of its A-list talents, who do, at least, bring fine and dandy performances. In further balance, theree is some very funny material to be found within the drudge. After all, Ant-Man always meant breezier fare than the likes of Doctor Strange and the Cap’ in the pre-Endgame days. Those Halcyon days.
Knock on the Cabin has all the markings of a genre almost exclusively monopolised by Netflix in recent years. A familiar cast – check. A limited set – check. A taut, claustrophobic thriller with an easy elevator pitch to sell it to friends and family for word of mouth success – check. It is, in that sense, an old school streamer. Vintage titles kick things off and a neat bow closes the circle. Add to the fold a headliner as director and what’s not to like?
The Film Blog 