The world changed forever in July 1969. Or, perhaps, it didn’t. If you go in for that sort of thing. An extraordinary number of people still do it would seem, with conspiracy no less ripe in 2024 – six human moon landings later – than fifty-five years ago. Possibly more in the age of rampantly untempered social media. It’s from such cynicism that Fly Me to the Moon fuels its launch into limited ambition. The film started out as a streaming project and will prove circular in that regard. Certainly, there little extra to the terrestrial here.
Despicable Me peaked with Silas Ramsbottom. Not the Steve Coogan voiced character, per se, but the sequence of his jowly introduction. Was it Kevin, or perhaps Bob, who looked furtively to his neighbouring minion and sniggered ‘bottom’, before bursting into unbridled laughter? Either way, a gag of all time greatness was born. Nothing else in the, now fourteen-year-old, franchise has ever matched such infantile brilliance, certainly not in such a way as to justify the astounding commercial success the series has achieved. $4.6bn and counting. Film four does little to break the mould, instead opting for gentle expansion. It’s bright, breezy and a little exhausting.
From the moment she struts into her first frame in MaXXine, skin-tight in silhouette and denim, Mia Goth is everything. In a film all about exploitation and the thirst for fame, only she has the fangs to drink it. There’s just something about her ownership of Ti West’s screen that screams star, even without the Bette Davis’ eyes and Betty Boop lips. No doubt, the film itself, which is likely the weaker of the now three X films, underserves Goth’s gumption. Certainly, it’s an uneven effort, rising well but folding hard. And yet, so long as there’s bite in those fangs, there’s a compelling beat to be found.
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