From animated delights to powerful documentaries, here's what's in cinemas in September
By
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what → animate → September
This month school holidays sees a trio of children's films enter cinemas; Dave Green's long-shelved Coyote vs Acme, Aardman's latest claymation spectacular Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom and the mile-a-minute hybrid animation Forgotten Island.
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trio → see → Bottom
Plus, Silenced serves a solemn look at weaponised defamation cases, Zach Cregger resurrects Resident Evil, and a Hollywood action blockbuster filmed in our very own backyard.
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Cregger → silence → backyard
pairs FBI agent Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) with real-life Brooklyn mobster Greg Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg) as they investigate a series of Klan murders in 1960s Mississippi.
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they → pair → Mississippi
The film's first miscalculation is to cast Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as a browbeaten law enforcer; he spends too much of the movie visibly awkward, shrinking away from his naturally powerful stature.
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he → cast → stature
The second (and fatal) error is the casting of a grotesquely built Mark Wahlberg, who sends the hammy script spinning into parody.
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script → build → parody
There's a uniquely cursed contrast between Wahlberg's wise-guy mugging and the grim torture he's required to dish out, like watching Frank Sinatra do Zero Dark Thirty.
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Sinatra → be → Thirty
Surprisingly, this is one of the more visually arresting studio movies released this year, putting every direct-to-Netflix thriller to shame.
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this → release → shame
Cinematographer Ante Cheng finds a slick throughline between southern gothic and noir; the infrequent action scenes are shot with a pleasing heft.
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scenes → find → heft
The jazzy score, courtesy of Terence Blanchard, also goes down smoothly.
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score → go → Blanchard
No-one will remember this film in two years, but there's no denying it scratches an itch for stylish, mid-budget trash.
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it → remember → trash
- Jamie Tram
Coyote vs Acme
There's one place Coyote vs Acme belongs: high rotation on Saturday night broadcast TV every six or so weeks until it's seared into the mind of a generation like so many great hybrid live action/animated projects of yore.
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it → be → yore
But until it can get there, Dave Green's Looney Tunes caper is more than worth a trip to the cinema these school holidays.
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Not just because supporting the movie is a resounding raspberry in the face of big Hollywood studios who think they can shelve art for a tax break, but because it's a genuinely funny and touching entry into the Looney Tunes oeuvre.
Coyote vs Acme is all there in the name: after decades of painful accidents at the hands of faulty Acme products, Wile E Coyote resolves to sue the monolithic company with the help of flop-sweat attorney Kevin Avery (Will Forte).
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Coyote → support → Avery
In this universe, Acme makes more than rubber chickens, they basically make anything people will buy and — like a lot of billion dollar, multi-national corporations — they're exploiting the oppressed for their own financial gain.
Acme's head lawyer Buddy Crane (a career-best John Cena) is the man sent in to protect those profits with a farcical court case, complete with conspiracy, kidnapping and an A-list whistleblower.
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lawyer → make → conspiracy
Coyote vs Acme might not reach the rich heights of its forefather, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but it has the same spirit, and that is something worth keeping alive.
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that → reach → spirit
The Hangover meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind should categorically not work as a family film, but Forgotten Island blends the two in a riot of colour and art styles to create something magical.
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Island → meet → something
On their last night together before college, BFFs Jo (R&B artist H.E.R) and Raissa (Liza Soberano) discover a portal to Nakali, an island of lost mythological creatures Jo's grandmother once told them stories about.
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grandmother → discover → stories
A wild night on Nakali follows, and the girls wake up with no memory of what happened, and no portal key to get home.
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what → follow → memory
They must retrace their forgotten steps across the island while avoiding the memory-stealing Batiba (Jenny Slate), who wants to erase the girls' friendship, and the murderous Manang (Lea Salonga), a genuinely terrifying creature based on the Filipino Manananggal, who craves blood and can tear herself in half.
Perhaps inevitably for a movie about failing memories, Forgotten Island lacks the tight narrative structure of most animated films.
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Island → retrace → films
The plot pings around at a hyperactive speed, and some characters get more attention than they deserve (like an aggressively handsome merman), while others go under-explored .
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others → ping → merman
The film really hits its stride when it digs into Jo and Raissa's friendship which is strained by their different personalities as well as Raissa's looming move from the Philippines to the US for college.
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which → hit → college
It's a joy to see the highs and lows of female friendship take centre stage, but between its college plot and 90s setting, the Jo and Raissa story feels aimed at parents rather than children.
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story → see → children
- Tansy Gardam
Heart of the Beast
A survival adventure set in the forests of Alaska, Heart of the Beast answers the important question: what if Brad Pitt starred in an episode of Man vs Wild?
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Pitt → set → Wild
James Belmont (Pitt) and his dog Odin (Uber) — both recently retired from the military and recovering from the trauma of their service — are exploring Alaska by light plane.
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They share a quiet life of camping, fishing, and birdwatching, far from the rest of humanity.
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But when Belmont has a heart attack mid-air and crash-lands his plane into a lake, the pair find themselves 80 kilometres from the nearest road, injured, with limited supplies, and threatened by CGI wildlife.
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pair → have → wildlife
To truly succeed, a film like this needs to make the audience feel the improbability of survival — the enormity of nature and the smallness of man (and dog).
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audience → succeed → man
The best examples use the extremity of the situation to reveal something fundamental about their characters.
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examples → use → characters
Heart of the Beast has some great moments, particularly a fraught river-crossing, and the cinematography showcases the beauty of the landscape (with NZ standing in for Alaska).
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NZ → have → Alaska
Pitt is solid throughout, and his presence anchors the film, while Uber turns in one of the best canine performances of the year.
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Uber → anchor → year
But the film moves too quickly from one threat to another to build any sense of growing dread.
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film → move → dread
Flashbacks to Belmont and Odin's shared experience in combat undercut the drama of the present moment — even facing down a bear struggles to compare to the chaos of explosions and gunfire.
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facing → share → explosions
Perhaps that's because no matter what happens, no matter the danger or the injuries, Belmont will grit his teeth and carry on.
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The script leaves no room for vulnerability or character growth and, without that, all that we're left with is a series of set-pieces — gone as quickly as they arrive.
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As goofy as it is gruesome, Weapons director Zach Cregger's magnificently twisted re-reboot, co-written with John Wick regular Shay Hatten, keeps motor-mouthed doofus Bryan relatably freaked out.
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Bryan → co → Hatten
Clearly in the wrong gig, he shrieks at every injury spied in an opening hospital sequence woozily captured by The Martian cinematographer Dariusz Wolski.
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he → shriek → Wolski
Fumbling a call with his newly pregnant girlfriend, Bryan also loses a stare-off with Doctor Who star Jo Martin's expertly withering receptionist.
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Bryan → fumble → receptionist
Not since the days of Romero has capitalism been quite as connected to the zombie apocalypse, with Bryan's quick buck-grabbing decision to take one last gig sending him to Raccoon City, despite he and his car being underdressed for an icy mountain climb, or the research of the nefarious Umbrella Corporation.
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he → connect → Corporation
When Bryan skids into an oddly summer-dressed woman (Andrea Miltnerová), it's comedy gold.
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it → skid → woman
…and 33 more, not listed.
The Aporia
