So many movies, so little time. Every month I’ll suggest the five movies you should catch once it opens in cinemas. Can you catch them all?
The Founder (9 Feb)
“The Founder” is a drama that tells the true story of how Ray Kroc, a salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food at their San Bernardino hamburger stand and the crowds of patrons it attracted, Kroc immediately saw franchise potential and manoeuvred himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire. And thus McDonald’s was born.
Most people have heard of how KFC started since Colonel Sanders is a rather iconic figure, what with his white beard and suit and all. McDonald’s, despite being the more popular fast food chain, has a lesser known story. “The Founder” looks interesting simply because it pulls back the curtains on one of the ubiquitous brands in the world and shows us how it all began.
Fifty Shades Darker (9 Feb)
Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson return as Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades Darker, the second chapter based on the worldwide bestselling “Fifty Shades” phenomenon. Expanding upon events set in motion in 2015’s blockbuster film, the new installment arrives for Valentine’s Day and invites you to slip into something a shade darker. When a wounded Christian Grey tries to entice a cautious Ana Steele back into his life, she demands a new arrangement before she will give him another chance. As the two begin to build trust and find stability, shadowy figures from Christian’s past start to circle the couple, determined to destroy their hopes for a future together. Fifty Shades Darker is directed by James Foley and produced by Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti and Marcus Viscidi, alongside series creator E L James. The screenplay is by Niall Leonard, based on James’ novel.
I’m going to come right out and say it – the only reason I want to watch “Fifty Shades Darker” is because the first film was like some little girl’s fantasy and the book was like a badly written P6 composition (that would score good grades, thanks to its use of “good phrases”). Nevertheless, now that we know about the icy relationship between Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, it’s going to make all those supposedly romantic scenes even more hilarious. And for many people out there, they just want to see what extremes the couple will go to when it comes to lovemaking.
The LEGO Batman Movie (9 Feb)
In the irreverent spirit of fun that made “The LEGO® Movie” a worldwide phenomenon, the self-described leading man of that ensemble—LEGO Batman—stars in his own big-screen adventure: “The LEGO® Batman Movie.” But there are big changes brewing in Gotham, and if he wants to save the city from The Joker’s hostile takeover, Batman may have to drop the lone vigilante thing, try to work with others and maybe, just maybe, learn to lighten up.
I daresay that “The LEGO Batman Movie” may very well be the best DC superhero film of the year (and perhaps the last 2-3 years), if not the best superhero of the year, outright. It promises so much (check out the list of characters slated to appear in it) while bringing our childhood memories to life. If you’ve ever played with Lego or Batman, you’re going to want to see how to play with it on a massive, professional scale, on the silver screen.
Rings (23 Feb)
A new chapter in the beloved RING horror franchise. A young woman becomes worried about her boyfriend when he explores a dark subculture surrounding a mysterious videotape said to kill the watcher seven days after he has viewed it. She sacrifices herself to save her boyfriend and in doing so makes a horrifying discovery: there is a “movie within the movie” that no one has ever seen before…
After last year’s Sadako vs Kayako showed us how you could still make a cursed videotape relevant in this day and age, I’m keen to see how “Rings” will do it. What method will the film use to make some unsuspecting soul watch an old videotape for fun? If you really wanted to watch a VHS tape now, would you actually be able to do it? Also, it’ll be fun to see them expand on the Sadako mythology and show us more about how Sadako came to be.
Siew Lup (烧腊) (23 Feb)
Mia, an ex-prostitute, is trapped in a loveless marriage with the abusive Quan (Sunny Pang, who also stars in Headshot in this year’s Festival lineup), a butcher who runs a roast meat shop. When she meets sensitive funeral director Wu, their passion for one another escalates into an affair. But the path to true love is fraught with jealousy, forcing someone to make a deadly move.
Siew Lup is a lascivious revenge thriller from director Sam Loh, who served up the deliciously twisted Lang Tong in 2014. Drawing inspiration from Asian genre films including the works of Takashi Miike, and the lineage of Hong Kong Cat III exploitation films. Loh daringly taps into the vein of femme fatale anti-heroes to craft a lurid tale of embittered love. He proves to have a taste for the darkest impulses of the human psyche, tantalizing audiences with a stylish film that will linger on the palate long after the final twist is dished out.
“Lascivious”? “Lurid tale of embittered love”? “A stylish film that will linger on the palate”? Despite the overly pretentious description of “Siew Lup” (someone should really fire the person who wrote that copy, it looks like all he did was to use a thesaurus to change some words into the most cheem ones he could find), the actual synopsis sounds interesting. I’m sure there will be plenty of parallels between women and roast pork and not all of them will make sense, but it sounds like a fairly plausible tale that could take place in Singapore rather than a film that “daringly taps into the vein of femme fatale anti-heroes”.
No, really, I’d like to know who was the person who wrote that awful copy.
So that’s it for February! It’s more of a month of experimental films rather than quality ones. Still, if you’re in the mood to try out new genres, February is a good month to start.
Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter. He’s also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. He Tweets/Instagrams at Optimarcus and writes at marcusgohmarcusgoh.com.
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