ETCinema: Movie Reviews by E T Griffiths

  Soul (2020) Review Dirs. Pete Docter, Kemp Powers   Latest Pixar Heart-warmer is visually and spiritually unique.   Soul follows the titular lost soul of a jazz musician, Joe, as he explores what makes life what it is. What begins as a rather bleak premise, the idea of souls going into the beyond, instead becomes a very warm tale of discovering the spark that makes life liveable. With an all star voice cast headed by a pathos-filled Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey, Soul comes to Disney Plus uses for free on Christmas Day, having been theatrically delayed in 2020.    This, like many Pixar joints before it, is a movie that will be fun for the kids, but completely life changing for the adults. This is perhaps the most deeply meaningful kids animation ever. Soul will truly make you think, and make you feel.   For the kids, all the hallmarks of Pixar are there. The comedy beats, the funny animals, the cute character designs etc. But for the adults it ’ s a completely different experience. Clever,

Mank (2020) Review   Dir. David Fincher     David Fincher's newest film is a love letter to the Hollywood of Old.     Monochromatic, Monaural, yet this film is anything but monotonous in its appreciation of classic Hollywood.  It ’ s a welcome exploration of the cinema of old that couldn ’ t further highlight just how much this art form has changed over time.   Mank follows Herman Mankowitz, the man who penned Orson Welles' classic picture Citizen Kane, widely regarded to be the greatest film of all time. We follow Mank as he muses over the completion of the screenplay, and frequently flashback to his earlier experiences in the studio system that inspired his writing and plagued his career.    This production is a beautiful homage to the Hollywood golden age. The whole style emulates an old movie, filmed specially in Black and White and ambitiously produced with monaural sound, perfectly capturing the look and feel of a black and white picture. This feels like cinema heritage,

Black Beauty (2020) Review  Dir. Ashley Avis   Modernised Classic is a simple tale with unbridled heart.    Trotting quietly onto Disney Plus this month is a new adaptation of the beloved novel Black Beauty, this time set in modern day, rural USA. Hitting the streaming platform with relatively little fan fare, this retelling has a lot of humility within and I found myself falling hook line and sinker for the engrossing, albeit predictable, ride it takes you on.    I come into this film without a negative bias for this attempt at rewriting a classic. I admit that the original book and the several cinematic versions previous, have as of yet escaped me. I am well aware of the tale of Black Beauty and its importance in stories and films. However, I have no aversion or malcontent towards a 2020 set, Americanised reinvention. I look beyond the context, into the film as a self contained watch. And in that respect, I found myself enjoying it most of the time.    Disney excels in capturing the

Mulan (2020) Review Dir. Niki Caro   Disney Remake dulls it ’ s narrative blade and misses the point.    Mulan is the next in a long line of cynical Disney Live Action remakes of their classic animated films. Unfortunately, like so many before it, it too lacks the heart and charm of its source material. I ’ ve never seen the point in remaking a film that had no problems to begin with, it can only ever get worse. Mulan is on the back foot before the film even begins with its controversial production history; the lead actress openly supporting the cruel and totalitarian Chinese government during the Hong Kong riots, and the film itself crediting a province in the Chinese wilderness that was related to the still unchallenged extermination of Uighur Muslims in the country. It ’ s hard to put those sorts of things in the back of your mind when watching a Disney film that ’ s clearly been designed to appease the biggest cinema market in the World; China.    That being said, this isn ’ t an a