lily james – NZ Film Freak

Yesterday

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Director: Danny Boyle
Writers: Jack Barth and Richard Curtis
Released: June 2019
Starring: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Ed Sheeran and Kate McKinnon
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Yesterday is a movie exploring the world where The Beatles never existed. After a global black-out, the protagonist Jack (Himesh Patel) wakes to discover that he’s the only one who remembers The Beatles or their songs.

Thankfully, as he’s a struggling musician he’s able to bring The Beatles’s music back to life. But with the fame and fortune, guilt and doubt isn’t far behind.

Yesterday is an easy watch. It’s a great Sunday afternoon family film with a fantastic soundtrack.

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I loved the little intricacies such as the incorrect lyrics because Jack couldn’t remember all the words – and who would? Put under pressure, I doubt you could name every single Beatles track and all the lyrics that go with it.

I also liked how the film explored what The Beatles would have endured if they had of been as famous as they were in the sixties today. It was particularly interesting listening to the comments and feedback from the record company – the White Album being rejected due to the racist title, for example.

Ed Sheeran makes an appearance. In fact, he’s in the film a fair bit! Coldplay’s Chris Martin was supposed to take this role but due to schedule conflicts, he wasn’t able to do it in the end.

Lily James is a favourite of mine – she’s perfect!

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I loved the English comedy and the unexpected surprises in an otherwise cookie-cutter rom-com.

While it’s not a blockbuster it certainly is a sweet story, which is something we all need to watch sometimes.

Jodie’s rating: 6/10

Cinderella (2015)

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writer: Chris Weitz. Based on Disney’s Cinderella.
Released: March 2015
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Lily James, Richard Madden, Stellan Skarsgård, Holliday Grainger, Derek Jacobi, Helena Bonham Carter
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Speaking of Disney live-action remakes and royal weddings, I remembered that I never wrote a review about Cinderella. There are so many Disney princess films and wedding movies on the tellie at the moment, so I thought I’d join in.

As with every Disney princess movie, one must take it with a pinch of salt. It will be a little cringe, over-dramatic, a little too perfect and very girly. But isn’t that what princess films are all about?

This live-action remake features Lily James as Cinderella, whose career seems to have been majorly boosted after this film came out. I remember at the time I was a bit disappointed in the casting because I didn’t know who this random was, but now I’d say it’s a perfect choice.

Not only was she the perfect ‘look’ for Cinderella, but she brought a little bit of personality to the character too (unlike Mia Wasikowska in Alice in Wonderland.). Lily James stays honest to the Cinderella we’ve come to know, while still being down to earth.

Ella’s mother: Have courage and be kind.

If you thought her waist was digitally made smaller, I can confirm this was not the case. Lily James has a naturally small 24 inch waist, and as she was wearing a corset in a billowy dress the appearance was an unnaturally tiny waist.

What about the glass slippers? While the close up of the glass slipper is real, it doesn’t actually fit Lily James’s foot. The rest of the time they’re CGI glass slippers.

Apparently Emma Watson was originally asked to play Cinders but she turned it down. She later went on to be cast as Belle in Beauty and the Beast.

Watson claimed she had more of an affinity with Belle than Cinderella. She also said Belle is a better role model, but I call BS on that statement. Disney princesses are all as shallow as each other. Just because Belle reads a lot doesn’t make her morally better than Cinderella.

I digress.

Helena Bonham Carter was a brilliant fairy godmother. Being in the Harry Potter movies perhaps made her well-practiced with a wand. She isn’t a sickly-sweet fairy godmother, in fact she’s rather brash, but it works!

(It is of course rather scandalous that she was cast because the director Kenneth Branagh cheated on Emma Thompson with Helena Bonham Carter back in the nineties.)

Fairy Godmother: Now off you go. For you shall go to the ball!

Cate Blanchett was the evil stepmother, and you truly came to hate her and her daughters. Cate and her bone structure are brilliant.

My favourite part is of course when the mice get turned into horses, the lizard into the coachman and the goose into a driver. It’s so magical!

Cinderella stays loyal to the original tale, and doesn’t try to be too different. It is a truly magical film, albeit cheesey. But isn’t that what Disney princess films are all about?

Jodie’s rating: 6/10

Baby Driver

Baby Driver Movie poster

Director: Edgar Wright
Writer: Edgar Wright
Released: June 2017
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, Ansel Elgort, Lily James and Jon Hamm
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From the genius that is Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End and Scott Pilgrim vs the World), comes Baby Driver. A music-infused movie about a getaway driver named Baby, played by baby-faced actor Ansel Elgort (The Fault in our Stars).

Deborah (Lily James): “You’re name’s Baby? B-A-B-Y, Baby?”

Baby scores his own life by picking the appropriate music on his iPod for everything he does. He doesn’t do anything without music playing in his ears, stemming from a traumatic car crash as a child that left him with tinnitus.

Doc (Kevin Spacey): “Still got a hum in the drum, he plays his iPod to drown it out”

I’m thinking this might be converted into an all-singing, all-dancing musical or stage play one day.

In some ways, it’s a ‘runaway film‘. But this theme in the movie is soon hijacked by reality, how you can’t run forever and how you must face the music at some point. This realism is something I like about the film.

Baby Driver movie

Whereas I usually fall asleep during action films, such as in various James Bond scenes, I didn’t in Baby Driver. I think because it was mixed with comedy a lot of the time, and it appears to be a tad more realistic, because the protagonists actually get hit in gun fights.

Bats (Jamie Foxx): “The moment you catch feelings is the moment you catch a bullet.”

I have studied Wright’s films ever since I started studying media at high school. Baby Driver exhibits classic Wright hallmarks, including extremely layered shots where you’ll pick something new up on every watch. There is nothing in this movie that is there by accident. Their costume, the music; everything is there for a reason.

Baby Driver movie - Kevin Spacey and Ansel Elgort

My favourite Wright hallmark is the very long scene without a single edit, all perfectly choreographed, just like in Shaun of the Dead when Simon Pegg’s character walks to the corner shop and back.

Another one, is the compilation of short, sharp edits. Finally, Wright’s English humour running through the dialogue, making Baby Driver stand out from the more glossy Hollywood action films.

Baby (Ansel Elgort): Your tattoo says ‘hat’?
JD: Yeah, it used to say ‘hate’. But to increase my chances of employment I had the E removed.
Baby: How’s that working out for you?
JD: Who doesn’t like hats?

While I thoroughly enjoyed the first third of the film, it went a bit long and flabby in the middle. Toward the end it picks up again, until the very end, which seems rushed, causing my suspension of disbelief to be stretched.

JD: I left my shotgun behind.
Bats: Not groovy JD. Not groovy at all.

While this isn’t a favourite film of mine, it is certainly a one-in-a-million film, and a good date night movie. The characters are cool and are played by talented actors, with a love story and a ton of wicked car chases and gun fights.

Griff: Is [Baby] retarded?
Doc: Retarded means slow. Was he slow?
Griff: No.

Jodie’s rating: 6.5/10