Posts Tagged ‘Sadie Sink’

Spiderman: Brand New Day

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jon Bernthal, Mark Ruffalo, Jacob Batalan, Florence Pugh, Lisa Colon-Zayas, Tramell Tillman, Marisa Tomei

Running Time: 2 hours and 25 minutes

Film Rating:  8 out of 10

Tom Holland, the 30 year old star of the Spiderman franchise has come a long way from his first Spiderman film which was released back in 2017, when he was just 21 years old. From Spiderman: Homecoming to Spiderman: Brand New Day, Holland has embraced the role of the legendary New York web slinger as he grew from a high school kid that discovered superhero powers to his latest film as a late twenties young man who is finding his new powers both a burden and a blessing.

Five years after Spiderman: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton injects some oriental charm into Spiderman: Brand New Day in the form of red clad ninjas. When the trailer for this film was released, I knew it would do well at the box office.

After all who doesn’t love Spiderman fighting ninjas?

The cinema houses will be packed. Indeed they are. This film is showing in multiple cinemas at every cinema house across the planet.

Along with an extremely buff and competent Tom Holland as Spiderman, Zendaya reprises her role as the elegant MJ along with Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher, Poor Things) as Bruce Banner aka The Hulk and Jacob Batalan as Ned Leeds.

In the first three films there was always a clear villain. In Spiderman: Brand New Day, the villain is an elusive shape shifter that can enter people’s bodies and move onto the next one, which in a city like New York that becomes extremely handy.

Enter the fabulous Sadie Sink (The Whale) as the vengeful Jean Grey as she tries to penetrate the ironically named department of damage control led by Bill Metzer played by Tramell Tillman.

Before Spiderman can meet his younger, fierce and feisty villain, he must battle The Hulk and flying red ninja’s in some epic and beautifully shot fight sequences whose impressive visual effects should be rewarded.

Naturally the chemistry between Zendaya and Tom Holland is undeniable but it is really Holland’s growth into the role of Spiderman that is most exhilarating and is the reason this film is so spectacular. A notable scene between Spiderman and Yelena Belova from Black Widow fame is clever and quite sexy as they meet in a steam bath. Oscar nominee Florence Pugh (Little Women) reprises her role as Yelena Belova as she helps Spiderman figure out what Jean Grey wants.

Coupled with the buddy scenes between Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal, Spiderman: Brand New Day works on multiple levels as a fantastic superhero film with high production values in the capable hands of the Hawaiian director that knew exactly what would make this film so successful.

Set entirely in New York, Spiderman: Brand New Day is a celebration of one of the most iconic superhero’s as he outgrows his teenage years and becomes a capable and brave man, trying to win back the girl he loves while dealing with the loss of his beloved aunt May played in flashback scenes by Oscar winner Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny), while battling malevolent forces and looking after his own health.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spiderman: Brand New Day gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is darker in tone but is definitely worth seeing.

Highly recommended viewing for those that love the entertaining web slinging franchise.

The Glass Castle

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

Cast: Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts, Ella Anderson, Sarah Snook, Max Greenfield, Josh Caras, Iain Armitage, Sadie Sink, Brigette Lundy-Paine

Hawaiian director Destin Daniel Cretton’s cinematic adaptation of the bestselling novel by Jeanette Walls The Glass Castle is an emotional and intricate exploration of a dysfunctional family’s unconventional upbringing.

The Glass Castle stars Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson (The People vs Larry Flynt, The Messenger) as the patriarch Rex Walls and Oscar nominee Naomi Watts (21 Grams, The Impossible) as his wife Rose Mary. Oscar winner Brie Larson (Room) stars as the grownup second daughter Jeanette who would eventually turn from gossip columnist writer to bestselling author of the novel from which the story is based.

Ella Anderson plays the younger version of Jeannette who has to deal with her poverty-stricken parents as they grow up in the backwater of West Virginia, often living in abandoned buildings and scrounging for food money.

At the film’s outset it is clear that Jeannette has a special bond with her heavy drinking, big dreaming and often delusional father Rex who keeps promising her and her siblings (two sisters and a brother) that he is going to build the family a glass castle from which they can glimpse the stars through.

As the narrative shifts between New York in 1989 and her poverty stricken upbringing in rural West Virginia, The Glass Castle intelligently explores the concepts of sustainable living, of living off the grid and repudiating the city driven Capitalist work ethic which defines contemporary America.

The mother Rose Mary is too busy painting to watch her children, never mind feed them while the father Rex is too busy drinking to actually get a proper a job to support his family. Woody Harrelson gives one of the best performances of his screen career as Rex Walls as he manipulates and misguides the family into believing that he has the capacity to actually take care of them.

Eventually the young Jeannette says to her siblings that they have to make their own plans to save up money and leave West Virginia for more lucrative work opportunities in New York.

Fast forward to 1989, where the older Jeannette, beautifully played with nuance and comprehensive emotional intelligence by Brie Larson who as a successful journalist on the verge of marrying her straitlaced accountant fiancée David played by Max Greenfield (The Big Short) suddenly has to contend with her parents squatting on the Lower East Side in an abandoned building.

Josh Caras, Brigette Lundy-Paine and Sarah Snook (The Dressmaker, Steve Jobs) play the other siblings Brian, Maureen and Lori.

The best scenes in The Glass Castle are between Brie Larson and Woody Harrelson and while the film is an emotional joyride, it does not give the parents any social accountability for the way they brought up their children through neglect and apparent starvation.

The Glass Castle is a fascinating exploration of familial responsibility or lack thereof and the emotional effects that irresponsible parents decision making can have on their unsuspecting children.

The drama gets a film rating of 8 out 10.

The highly underrated Woody Harrelson should received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as Rex Walls in the upcoming 2018 Academy Awards.

The Glass Castle is recommended viewing for those that enjoy a tense, sometimes difficult family drama where the children are told to pick stars while they are starving on earth.