This British comedy was shown and awarded at the 2019 South by Southwest Festival under the name 'Boyz in the Wood', but now it has been given the title 'Get Duked!', a play on an English swear word and the plot of the movie. The story follows the adventures of four teenagers in the Scottish Highlands as they complete the so-called "Duke of Edinburgh Challenge". They have to make a journey through the wilderness and, as if that weren't hard enough, they also have to escape from a pair of hunters who want to kill them. 'Get Duked!' is full of sharp humor and good critiques of youth culture, regarding drug consumption and also the difference between social classes. The production can be compared to the kind of comedy of Taika Waititi, who manages to talk about serious topics and still get a laugh out of it. An example of this is the award-winning 'Jojo Rabbit' and 'The Incredible Adventure of Rick Baker'. 'Get Duked!' has a great soundtrack - for those who are fans of hip-hop - and an original plot, which mixes moments of tension with lots of humor. The cast of the movie is not very well known, the most popular faces are Eddie Izzard, Kate Dickie, Jonathan Aris and James Cosmo, who deliver great performances. The four protagonists don't stay behind, special mention to Lewis Gribben - it's hard not to laugh at his lines.
In the face of a more enlightened racial awareness, yet ne that falls into empty political correctness in the jaws of voracious consumerism; racial dynamics and their nuances, complexities, and contradictions become a caricature of themselves. American Fiction, nominated for the 2024 Oscar for Best Picture, is a brilliant exploration of such a thorny assertion. The plot follows Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright in one of his best roles), an African American professor and writer whose career stalls because his books are not "black" enough. So what does he do? He adopts a pseudonym and writes a satirical novel aiming to expose the hypocrisy of the publishing world and our culture... but the world loves it for all the wrong reasons, and its popularity spirals out of control. It's a hilarious satire that addresses complicated issues with wit and humor, comfortably coexisting with other titles like Sorry to Bother You and some films in Spike Lee's filmography. The cast is more than up to the task: Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown, Issa Rae, and Keith David are among the names that grace this production.
My Old Ass is a fun Prime Video comedy that manages to surprise and touch in equal measure. A coming-of-age story, the film follows Elliott (Maisy Stella), an 18-year-old free spirit who comes face-to-face with her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza). However, when this older (and, according to Elliott, idiotic) version starts giving advice on what her younger self should or shouldn’t do, Elliott realizes she needs to rethink everything about family, love, and what is turning into a life-changing summer.
After the terror of A Quiet Place, John Krasinski leaps into a new genre as director with IF. The story follows a young girl (The Walking Dead's Cailey Fleming) who, while still dealing with her mother's death, must face her dad's (Krasinski) risky heart surgery. At her grandmother's house (Fiona Shaw), she discovers a group of strange imaginary creatures that need her help, as only she and a mysterious man (Ryan Reynolds) can see them, and together they embark on a mission to return them to the children who imagined them. It's a tender fantasy that seems to be for the whole family, but sometimes gets so tangled in its internal logic that it seems aimed at a more adult audience. However, behind everything, its message about connecting with imagination and never losing the capacity for wonder we have as children, manages to come through. At the very least, we appreciate that it is much more imaginative than anything the big film franchises have to offer today.
In 2006, actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen hit the bullseye with his outrageous comedy, but with a powerful and very funny political and social subtext behind it. 14 years later, Cohen returns to the character at a time of political extremism, again in a provocative and daring way. Although the movie does not have the same vigor and power as the previous one, the jokes are still sharp and some moments exude daring - the scenes with Mike Pence, Rudy Giuliani and two Republicans in quarantine are absolutely hilarious. Maria Bakalova ('Transgression') also helps to move the plot forward as Borat's daughter. So, it can be said that, although inferior to the first one, 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' fulfills what it promises: it makes you laugh and, once again, it provokes the status quo of American politics and high society.