BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Warning: semi-spoilers within this review.

For the most part, BlackkKlansman is a mainstream piece of based-on-a-true-story entertainment. Despite being an indictment of racism, it spends at least as much time pointing out the ineptitude of the Ku Klux Klan as it does dealing with racism.

There's a distinct lack of discomfort that while it may not hammer home the horrors of racism, paints a more nuanced, and potentially more realistic picture of the experience. It also makes the film more palatable to a mainstream audience who are less likely to see a film that's going to make them experience suffering blow-by-blow and more likely to want to watch a film about a black cop who pulls one over on the white supremacists.

So, a nice safe film - until it hammers home its message at one point with a speech by Harry Belafonte recollecting a lynching from 1916, and then again in the final few minutes when a straight line is drawn between the racist past of the USA straight to present-day events. And it's heartbreaking.

As well as being a decently crafted piece of cinema, it's a film that people should be talking about. It's probably more important from an American perspective, given that nation's unique history with racism, but the echoes of those attitudes are disturbingly present throughout the rest of the European-centred world, so its relevance is definitely not limited to those shores.

The Escape (2018)

For me to sum up The Escape is probably doing the film a disservice, so bear that in mind when I tell you that it's the story of Tara (played by Gemma Arterton) feeling trapped in a marriage to Mark (Dominic Cooper), who is a prime example of toxic masculinity in a nice suit, driving a nice car, living in a nice house in a nice neighbourhood.

The first part of the film is the examination of this marriage. It's a deeply sad portrayal by Arterton as the women who is yearning for more from a life that is solely defined by being wife (read: cleaner, cook, masturbatory aid, babysitter) and mother.

Cooper's role is well-drawn too. He's subtly abusive rather than being physically violent - any violence is expressed against inanimate objects rather than hitting Tara - but there's a constant threat, particularly when he manhandles her - and his sexual interactions with her are barely consensual, hanging on the line that would lead to Internet arguments about whether they constitute rape.

None of his behaviour seems particularly malicious, but rather the environment in which he has been brought up. He cannot understand why his wife is sad, he wants to fix her, but his actions are tainted by an inability to think beyond himself and his tainted understanding of the world.

By the time the titular escape finally occurs, it's a welcome relief, brilliantly handled by the filmmakers. Sound design, music and cinematography all play as important a part as the superb job done by the actors.

There's more beyond that as the film doesn't avoid the subsequent consequences and the reality of Tara's situation. The film's ending is not a resolution as such, but it is a step towards one. It's appropriate, thoughtful, and necessarily leaves a dozen questions hanging around afterwards.

Christopher Robin (2018)

Christopher Robin, AKA Winnie the Pooh and the Midlife Crisis, is an odd film in that its choice of audience appears to be middle-aged men.

Being a middle-aged man, this means that I really enjoyed the film. It was fun, funny, and had a nice tinge of nostalgia for someone who grew up with the Pooh stories.

I'm not sure how well it's going to do with a younger audience. I assume the filmmakers hope that the inclusion of Winnie the Pooh and friends will give it cross-generational appeal. I don't know how true that will be.

It appears to be trying to emulate Paddington in some regard. It doesn't succeed, in large part because Paddington was completely faithful to its source material, whereas Christopher Robin takes detours into a world that most definitely is not 100 Acre Wood.

It's not a wholly unsuccessfully detour - the scenes of Pooh and Christopher Robin navigating a London railway terminal were the best part of the film - but it does stray from the Pooh formula.

I was also not happy to learn in the film that Robin is considered Christopher Robin's surname, rather than a middle-name that is (in childhood) appended with his first name. It doesn't feel right (and is of course historically inaccurate.

I had a couple of additional minor issues with the film, but overall it was enjoyable, and I came out of the cinema feeling better than when I had gone in, which is enough to recommend it for me.