Blink Twice - 2024 - USA

Blink Twice - 2024 - 6/10

Frida and Jess, wait-staff for  an exclusive, A-list gala, miraculously catch a VIP’s eye.
They are invited back to his private island for gourmet meals, endless sun, designer drugs.
Hallucinogens or narcotics, with spinning side effects, compounded by the massive blunts everyone tokes.
Island servants, mocking and unsettling, refer to Frida as the red rabbit.

 
Slow burn thriller will test the patience of some during the leisurely first half.
Compensations include stylish photo compositions, and a soured fairytale undercurrent.
The finale, while not clichéd, does feel contrived, and I wish it had been better thought out.

Vernon Subutex - 2019 - France

Vernon Subutex - 2019 - 6/10  

 
Opening flash of his 90’s heyday, when Vernon ran Revolver, a trendy Parisian record shop,
Wild customers, camaraderie, sex, drugs, good times!
Bump a few decades, no more music store, broke, Vernon is evicted and out on the streets.
A chronic mooch, a list of Facebook “friends”, he possesses an easy charm despite the growing dishevelment.
Then there are the tapes, left to him by a deceased, fallen musician.
Nine half-hour episodes that, I gather, barely scratch the surface of an influential novel trilogy.
The framework resembles a quest, the grail a testament.
Lightweight adaptation.

Alien: Romulus - 2024 - UK

Alien: Romulus - 2024 - 6/10

 
For Alien fans, this borrows from / plays homage to the whole franchise.
Including, as ever, Weyland-Yutani employees with the intelligence of sock puppets.
A large craft drifts toward a terraformed mining colony.
Overlooked by scientists & military, yet seen by young scavengers.
‘Hey, if there’s the tech gear on that, we might could escape this ole rock!”
The wayward craft turns out to be a huge research station.
And our plucky crew of scrap dealers land themselves into a dead teenager flick.
While this looks fantastic, the script is below derivative.
So much money lavished on a fan-service film.  Disappointing.