Though September may have been quite a slow month, October soon picked up the pace and gave us a few movies that I’m sure will be spoken about for weeks, months, if not years to come. As we approach the end of the year, we find ourselves rounding out much of our top fives, and I’m sure many from this month will appear in plenty of those lists. However, just as expected, we’ve also been given plenty of lacklustre pictures, or a few that didn’t work out quite as well as it initially seemed they would. Here are the movies to rush to while they still occupy cinemas, and some to avoid like the plague, released in the last 31 days.
The Best
Forgotten Island (dir. Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado)
Forgotten Island seemed a front-runner in animated Oscar conversations before its release. This is mostly due to it being directed by Joel Crawford, the man who brought Puss in Boots: The Last Wish to life. In all its style and beauty, Crawford displayed what the medium of animation can do, and Forgotten Island is absolutely no different.
Since watching Forgotten Island, my belief in an Oscar nomination, at the very least, for Crawford’s newest work hasn’t wavered at all - even if I’m not sure of its capability for winning. However, that’s due much more to the sheer competition this year - and this month alone - than any indictment of the movie itself.
The most important thing is how this pans out for its target audience, in its core themes. I fully believe, if given the respect it so clearly deserves, this could be an incredibly important movie for the children and young teens that this is aimed at. In its messaging on the importance of friendship - especially during childhood - and how the people around you shape who you are, I’m sure this could positively affect so many children’s relationships with their friends going forward.
While there are a good few complaints to be made on Forgotten Island - namely an overly-stuffed story and the underdevelopment of a few core points due to that - this persists with its incredibly important and admirable themes, making for a beautiful third act. If you’re to watch only a few from this month, be sure to let this be one.
Read our full review here: A Revival For Animation With Heart - Forgotten Island Review
Clayface (dir. James Watkins)
Clayface is the newest in a long line of supervillain origin stories, as well as in the infancy of the new DC Cinematic Universe. This sits in an incredibly hit-or-miss subgenre, spanning from 2019’s Joker to 2024’s Joker: Folie à Deux, though it was integral to the continuation of the DCU that Clayface works in. Lucky for James Gunn and Peter Safran, it does.
This seemed - in some part - a decider on how many risks the DCU is willing to take moving forward, since Supergirl wildly underperformed. Clayface is also an even greater risk due to it being an R-rated body horror in a subgenre that seems to miss much more than it ever hits - mostly with Sony’s universe. What allows this to stand out, however, is its uniqueness. Clayface feels different to any superhero movie we’ve ever seen, especially in a landscape dominated by Marvel’s creative bankruptcy in recent years, and it works out incredibly well.
Does Clayface have issues? Sure, but what’s important is that it's new and different. It’s horrifying, it’s gory, it’s funny at times, it’s simply quite an entertaining watch, even if it seems a lot was left on the cutting room floor.
There are some truly incredible scenes here, especially in its third act, which utilise Matt’s powers to their full potential, as well as plenty of tragedy throughout, displaying this movie’s heart even in its biggest moments. Clayface is doing amazingly at the box office lately, which is a testament to its quality. If you’re wondering about the future of the DCU, let Clayface show you it’ll be just fine.
Read our full review here: Villain Origin Stories Done Right - Clayface Review
Wildwood (dir. Travis Knight)
Wildwood is a true feat of animation and moviemaking in general. This flows so beautifully and displays what humans can create, proving Laika will surely be one of the final frontiers against AI ‘art’. This took sixteen years to create, with five of those spent on filming, involving over a thousand artists and hand-built sets, and you see the pure craftsmanship within every individual frame, making for a truly awe-inspiring two hours.
The audience is thrown straight into a cold war between factions in this fictional world within the forest, consisting of mountains of fantastical lore, though everything feels clear. This spans the amount of world-building that could fill a trilogy - including anthropomorphic coyote soldiers, multiple civilisations of birds complete with their own political systems, witches, and the magic that protects this world from ours - in only 130 minutes, even leaving enough room for a beautiful story of love and loss. You’d think this would end up overstuffed, though it never feels rushed in any way.
One thing I expected was for Curtis, the comic relief character, to be stuck in his role much more than he ends up being. He managed to play quite an integral part in building this world and these characters, taking up much more of the screen than I ever would have guessed, though I’m definitely not complaining.
I will say, however, that the amount of spectacle attached to this - in its incredible achievement in animation - I’m not sure the substance quite catches up with the style. While this is definitely a very enjoyable film which can take you through an array of emotions, it seems there’s much more to look at than to feel. However, what you are looking at is incredible in its own right and should convince you alone to watch it.
Primetime (dir. Lance Oppenheim)
Honestly, Primetime is one I was actually somewhat conflicted about as I initially left the cinema. I’ll start with the good, which is essentially everything - at least in a technical sense. There’s such a palpable intentionality with absolutely everything you see on screen, from the all-round incredible acting to the biting tension, all the way down to the movie simply becoming more grainy as we go on, reflecting Hansen’s ever-declining psyche.
What I was conflicted about may have partially been my fault. I went into this expecting a much grander movie, in a sense. It constantly felt as if the other shoe was about to drop, like we’d see something big that changes everything, but that never came. Instead, this is a much simpler retelling of the growth of To Catch a Predator in the early 2000s, showcasing the inherently insincere nature of reality TV - especially of this kind - as well as the constant chase towards fame that leads everybody around Hansen to be alienated from him and his show. While this is a more straightforward story than I initially expected, it’s still pretty great.
I believe this is surely going to be Robert Pattinson’s Oscar, after many years of trying. However, there are so many incredible performances in this, with highlights including Merritt Wever and Skyler Gisondo specifically, in their incredibly nuanced, deeply layered performances.
All around, this is quite an incredibly put-together picture, which grows on me the more I ponder over it. This was released in a month of so many great movies and still manages to stand out, despite sounding like one of the more mundane of the lot.
Read our full review here: Technically Incredible But Missing Something - Primetime Review
Digger (dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu)
Digger is quite a divisive one, which is why I left it until the end. Some say this is too on the nose; some say it's exactly what some people need right now. However, one thing is certain - this didn’t make nearly as much money as it deserved, and I worry for the future of original cinema due to its crash.
Iñárritu does wonders with a fast-moving, dense script, and Digger is absolutely no different, packing an incredible amount of information into very little time. I came out of Digger unsure of my thoughts and, to be completely honest, I’m still not certain. While there are moments in which I wonder whether I’m actually enjoying what I see, I also find myself unable to take my eyes off the screen.
This is jam-packed with incredible performances all round, from Tom Cruise to Riz Ahmed, John Goodman to Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons to Emma D’Arcy. There is no wasted performer here, and everybody throws themself into their respective roles with complete trust in Iñárritu’s vision.
Even though Digger may be one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, I believe this also may be one of the most important movies of the year. This includes such clear themes and needs to be as clear as they are to fully convey the message that’s intended. I can see why this wouldn’t work for many people, though I found myself fascinated by it all. If you’re at all interested, I would definitely suggest giving Digger a go; Lord knows it needs it.
Read our full review here: A Confusing Experience That Left Me Stunned - Digger Review
The Worst
Verity (dir. Michael Showalter)
Just like all Colleen Hoover adaptations, Verity disappointed at almost every turn, complete with mounds of shallow reaction-bait, simply added to get people talking. While this was marketed as some sort of hyper-sexual, erotic, horror voyeuristic fantasy, it seems a lot was left on the cutting room floor or just didn’t exist in this story at all, making way for more of Dakota Johnson simply reading aloud.
Much of this didn’t really feel as if it moved at all. The story is incredibly simple and doesn’t feel like it should have filled an entire two hours. Simply put, this follows Lowen reading Verity’s manuscript, deciding she’s a terrible person, killing her, and telling you the questions to leave with - the last of which I believe to be its biggest sin. This gives you no room to come to any conclusions yourself; instead, it just tells you what to think without hesitation.
Just like all other Colleen Hoover adaptations, there’s a big twist near the end which forces you to rethink everything you just watched. However, when it happens as often as this, it loses all surprise and allure. Not only that, Verity’s ‘big twist’ feels incredibly half-baked - I almost wonder if we could have got the same result with Verity looking into the lens and saying “just kidding”.
The highest praise I can confidently award this is that it simply includes Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett, two incredible performers in this genre. However, this was Hathaway’s easiest paycheck of the year, with most of it being lifeless, and Dakota Johnson still manages to suck most of the life out of any scene, seeming intent to prove the meaning of the phrase ‘nepo baby’.
Read our full review here: More of The Same For Colleen Hoover - Verity Review
Other Mommy (dir. Rob Savage)
Other Mommy simply wasted a lot of its potential, for which it had a surprising amount. From the trailers, I foresaw quite an interesting horror, twisting the sacred relationship between a mother and daughter and keeping the audience guessing as to which mother is on screen at any given moment. That is not what we got at all; in fact, the one interesting concept here - one the movie was built around - makes almost no appearance, that being the ambiguity around whether we’re seeing this little girl’s real mother or not.
Jessica Chastain seemed to understand her role completely and played as much as she could - helped in no part by her script - in that ambiguity. However, it seems everything was working against her, with there being a complete shift in tone and editing whenever Other Mommy would appear.
Something I absolutely hated in this was how Other Mommy was able to change her proportions at will. Did it make for a few interesting or cool-looking moments? Yes, namely that of Other Mommy swallowing Bela in the ocean with her giant hand, but should the ‘rule of cool’ really apply in a horror movie like this? I don’t think so. Many moments that would include these proportions changing looked much more silly than scary.
Other Mommy shows us glimpses of a movie that could have been entirely on the other side of this list, though it never actually evolves into it. Instead, it sits in its own boring concept, and makes this monster no more terrifying than it is at the start - which you realise can get old very quickly.
Read our full review here: Wasted Potential of The Highest Order - Other Mommy Review
The Social Reckoning (dir. Aaron Sorkin)
I will say, this may have been the biggest surprise of the month - possibly among the biggest of the year. Sixteen years after the monumental achievement in cinema that is The Social Network, we see Aaron Sorkin - writer of both - take the director’s chair and prove that it may hinder his scriptwriting.
There are so many comparisons to Reckoning’s big brother that can be made, in which The Social Network will always come out on top, though I’d like to zone in on one; that is its structure. The Social Network is a movie that works off momentum, in no small part, and with Reckoning’s novel-like structure - ironic considering this is the original story - in its various chapters, it seems to halt much of the momentum built by moving onto a new stage of the story. Occasionally, it’ll seem as if we’re getting somewhere, then we’ll stop and move along to the next part, in a completely unnecessary way.
Jeremy Strong does disappear into his rendition of the Zuckerberg character just as it seems he would, though it feels like a very different Zuckerberg than that of the 2010 picture. Of course, this can be partially attributed to the sixteen-year gap, though this version feels like it goes too far. Strong’s Zuckerberg feels so much like a caricature that it simply comes off as quite disingenuous and too much like a performance, as if Sorkin told him to ‘be more robotic’ one too many times.
Read our full review here: Sorkin's Chair Hinders His Pen - The Social Reckoning Review
Klara and the Sun (dir. Taika Waititi)
Klara and the Sun feels like Taika Waititi’s attempt at* Poor Things*, but Taika Waititi is not Yorgos Lanthimos, Jenna Ortega is not Emma Stone, and this story is so much shallower. The crux of this movie seems to lie in its inability to hold or faithfully put forward any themes for long enough.
This seems to start out with some sort of storyline of Klara, once a robot knowing nothing beyond the walls of the store she’s sold in, discovering the wonders of the world and how to be autonomous, rather than following a sole leader. However, as soon as she gets chosen, that all flies out the window, and the story turns into her simply doing whatever it takes to serve her owner - which I simply don’t care to watch. While these themes of the beauty of nature do arise throughout, they never persist long enough to actually say anything, and Klara never does any kind of self-discovery aside from that she has the ability to love.
Themes that this does actually delve into are surrounding the irreplaceability of human life and the value of it, but none of that really feels like the main story. Instead, it seems to revolve around Klara simply pleading with the sun to keep her owner from dying, something that’s played off as more of a joke than a naive woman doing all she believes she can.
Taika Waititi as a director baffles me slightly, as I’m unsure where he thrives. He’s no better than his script, yes, but it seems he’s often of very little use in anything that isn’t straight comedy. However, that doesn’t explain Jojo Rabbit. One thing’s sure, though: Klara and the Sun is not his magnum opus, as it once seemed it would be - for a fleeting moment.
The Influencer Project (dir. Mike Nybroe)
The Influencer Project is a somewhat interesting concept, and does display some knowledge of various filmmaking techniques, specifically in horror and found footage - with a few mildly interesting moments of tension - though none of it seems to come together in any meaningful way.
Most of this is likely due to the torturously dragging story and the all-round very subpar, at times simply bad, performances. Yes, Chiara King isn’t an actor, but she is in a movie, so you can’t give her too much grace.
Most of the first act feels like a ‘woe is me’ act, as Chiara King tries to make you sympathise with her career choices, while also showing off her lavish lifestyle that she can afford because of it. I believe part of my problem with this was simply using a real influencer as its main character, as much of it feels like nothing more than an advertisement for her various channels and makes no attempt to at least hide it - along with its many brand deals scattered throughout.
This does include a few somewhat interesting, if not quite surface-level, messages about the harmful effects of social media and doing anything for some amount of recognition. However, this is all stuff that’s been said plenty of times before, and is no better here. The highest praise I can really award this is that it does have a truly captivating opening scene; I just wish the rest of it kept that momentum going.