by Wondering what to see? In the words of a famous London cinema: Goodbye in the sunshine, come and sit in the dark. The heat wave makes being outdoors a little tough to cope with right now, so thank goodness there are some movies to keep you from getting heat stroke.
Key among this week’s releases is the arrival of Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s multi-award nominated animated documentary. Run away on Disney+, a moving portrayal of a man’s struggle with overlapping uncertainties about his identity and how to reveal his troubled past to those he loves.
Also in the service, worthy of a greeting, is Bob’s Burgers Moviewhich is more or less exactly what it sounds like: a long episode of the beloved animated sitcom, this time with a little more on-screen money and a more musical bent to its proceedings.
Read more: Everything New at Paramount+ in July
Meanwhile, Shudder premieres his original film good ladya psychological horror thriller directed by Jenna Cato Bass, which continues her interest in genre explorations of South African history in a film that has earned some favorable comparisons to the cult hit. Salt in his exploration of persistent post-apartheid racism.
Please note that a subscription may be required to watch.
Run away (2021) – Disney+ (pick of the week)
Using the medium of animation as a disguise (in practical terms, for his main subject and interviewee Amin) and an expression of inner turmoil and freedom, flee from the overall nominations at last year’s Academy Awards in International Feature, Documentary and Animated Feature Film feel apt for once.
The Danish film, directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, intersperses archival footage amid expressive, weathered drawings depicting Amin’s memories of fleeing Afghanistan, as well as the more rudimentary style of newspaper comic strips depicting him in the past. and the present.
Read more: Everything new on Disney+ in July
The animation itself is a bit stiff when it comes to the first one, mostly sticking to key poses in a sort of pure functionality, with very little in-between movement for any nuanced and expressive movement so that the character portraying Amin really act like it. .
Still, those direct translations of Amin’s real-life action into drawing can be a boon to the film as often as a frustration, as a fairly respectable attempt to refrain from making the film feel also ‘author’, to let Amin speak for himself.
There is much to reveal after all. From his heretofore hidden identity as a refugee that overlaps with being a closeted gay man, Run away sensitively describes the euphoria of the moment when its central character is finally able to stop running.
Also new to Disney+: Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022), Chickens race (2000), dead poets society (1989)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) – NOW with a Sky Cinema membership
Apparently a victory lap for the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Spider-Man, adapted to be some sort of victory lap and/or redemption tour for Sony. other Spider-Men, played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, Spider-Man: No Way Home You have a lot to do.
Read more: Everything new at Sky Cinema in July
The famously poorly kept secret of the other legacy Spider-Men who are involved is easily the highlight of the film, one that can top even some of the most jaded superhero movie fans. It’s just nice to see Maguire’s trademark sweetness in the role, and even some metatextual meaning brought to Garfield’s more edgy, hyper-wordy, tortured version of the character. His Peter gets a chance to prevent a tragedy that he couldn’t in his own movies.
As a long-time Spider-Fan, it’s hard to resist the three trade war storylines and find solace in each other’s company, the character traditionally a rather lonely figure.
Sadly, of the three performances, Holland is often in the lurch, with little to differentiate his Peter Parker, and this Spider-Man series’ identity crisis is left as unresolved as the character’s at the end of the film, a problem that did not help. Jon Watts lack of style behind the camera.
Better as a reminder of the old days than a gritty new entry, but also perhaps the closest the MCU Spider-Man has come to replicating the classic anxieties of Stan Lee and Steve Dikto’s wall-crawling hero.
Also new to NOW: King Richard (2021), Zola (2020)
good lady (2021) – Shudder
The fourth feature film by celebrated South African writer-director Jenna Cato Bass (high fantasy, flat earth), good lady – originally titled mlungu wam in Xhosa — sees Bass once again apply gendered emotions to South African historical baggage.
high fantasy he set his sights on contemporary colonialist land ownership through the eyes of many of Bass’s collaborators. good lady follows in his footsteps by tracing post-Apartheid race relations and how they persist in contemporary South Africa.
The film follows Tsidi, a single mother, who is forced to move in with her estranged mother Mavis, a live-in domestic worker looking after her catatonic white ‘Mrs’ in Constantia, an affluent Cape Town suburb.
Read more: Everything new on Prime Video in July
Like Bass’s other films, the South African director boils the race relations story down to tense, small-scale supernatural horror, its do-it-yourself construction giving it unity of vision: the screenplay co-written by its stars.
Also on Shudder: Mad God (2021)
