Meewella | Critic

According to P

Tag: Dexter Fletcher

QuickView: Ghosted (2023)

“She does travel a lot for work.”

Cole

After her brief, scene-stealing role in No Time To Die, Ana de Armas has been catapulted to the status of action lead, whilst Chris Evans steps back as the hapless everyman. A romcom action adventure about a farmer who discovers his one night stand is a CIA agent, Ghosted opens inauspiciously with a meet cute more awkward than romantic, and a man unable to recognise his stalkerish behaviour even when directly pointed out by his sister. Red flags aside, any romance is doomed by the independently charismatic leads’ palpable lack of chemistry. From the writers of Deadpool and Zombieland, one might expect a deft blend of violence, emotion and humour but Ghosted instead delivers tonal whiplash as it jumps from Cole’s distress at killing a man to petty “comedic” squabbling in a matter of seconds. Aside from a climactic fight in a revolving restaurant, there is nothing memorable about the action save for the decision to set it to upbeat pop songs — this is palpably a gimmick with none of the creative choreography of last year’s Bullet Train. There is some mild, mindless entertainment to be had with Ghosted but you’re better off taking the hint and moving on: there are plenty more films in the c-inema.

4/10

QuickView: Terminal (2018)

Terminal quad poster

“Bless me Father, for I have sinned.”

Annie

Beneath Terminal‘s very pretty neo-noir exterior, colourfully drenched in neon and sulphur, lies a palpably empty world populated by a handful of shallow characters. Margot Robbie manages to bring vibrant energy to Annie, which is more than the rest of the cast can achieve — Simon Pegg in particular seeming miscast. The perpetual twilight (the film almost demands to be watched late at night) and modern noir setting bring to mind the atmospheric Franklyn, but without its purposive depth. The lack of attempt at world building may be explained by the dreamlike approach to storytelling, repeatedly quoting from Alice in Wonderland as if to suggest that the viewer should accept Terminal as a similar series of scenes that operate by their own internal logic. Perhaps but, as I learned as a child, a dream is only interesting to the dreamer — to everyone else it is an interminable bore.

3/10

"A film is a petrified fountain of thought."

(CC) BY-NC 2003-2023 Priyan Meewella

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