A starling fails to take flight, an assassin satisfies
The Starling
Film | Cert: 12A | ★✩✩✩✩ Review by Linda Marric
MELISSA MCCARTHY leads a stellar cast in this Netflix-produced drama from Hidden Figures director Theodore Melfi. Written by Matt Harris, The Starling also stars Chris O’Dowd, legendary Hollywood actor Kevin Kline and Dead Wood and Justified star Timothy Olyphant. It follows Lily, a resilient woman attempting to piece her life back together when she is faced with a tragic loss.
After the death of her only child, Lilly (McCarthy) finds herself alone at home contemplating her future while her distraught husband Jack (O’Dowd) is spending some time at a psychiatric facility. When a feisty starling decides to nest in her garden, Lilly finds herself battling the bird who keeps on taunting and attacking her.
On the advice of her husband’s therapist, Lilly seeks the help of Larry (Kline), a former shrink tuned veterinarian who knows a thing or two about birds. On her journey to rid her garden of its unwanted guest and heal her broken heart, Lilly rediscovers her will to live and the love she still has for her once perfect family unit.
IThe kindest thing anyone can say about The Starling is that is has some genuinely thrilling performances from McCarthy,
O’Dowd and Kline. Sadly though, T’S NO secret that ever no amount of good acting or good since bursting onto our will can absolve this film from screens, the John Wick being deeply muddled, overly sentiment franchise has given birth and altogether rather tedious. to a multitude of knockoff But one of the most jarring productions hoping aspects of the film is the needlessly to capitalise on its critical and saccharine soundtrack of supposedly box-office success. From Nobody, to uplifting tunes destined to more recently Pig, there seems to make you want to rip off your ears. be a growing trend in Hollywood
Quite beside the crime of giving for taciturn loners with a vengeful the brilliant Timothy Olyphant so agenda. So it was only a matter of little to work with, the film’s greatest time before we had a female-centric misstep is its inability to form a version of the genre. single coherent thought. It is a real Starring Karen Gillan (Dr Who) shame as there was great potential and Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey, here, sadly squandered on a series of Gunpowder Milkshake is the brainchild risibly weak metaphor-heavy ideas. of award-winning Israeli
I’d give it a miss unless director Navot Papushado (Rabies, you’re in mood to Big Bad Wolves). The film also stars be infuriated out of Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh and your wits. Paul Giamatti and tells the story of a young contract assassin and her quest for revenge.
Sam (Gillan) was only 12 when she was abandoned by her elite assassin mother Scarlet (Headey). Raised
by The Firm — a ruthless crime syndicate her mother worked for — Sam has acquired the skills that made her mother into one of the most feared killers in the business. Fifteen years
later, the young woman has grown into one of The Firm’s most essential assets.
When her latest mission goes wrong, Sam must choose between serving her bosses and protecting the life of an innocent eight-year-old girl (Chloe Coleman). With a target on her back, our heroine’s only chance at survival is a reunion with Scarlet and her associates (played by Bassett, Yeoh and Carla Gugino).
Director Papushado and cowriter
Ehud Lavski presents a film that exists within a strange and otherworldly heightened reality in which action set pieces function almost like meticulously choreographed dances.
While the dialogue and exchanges carry more than their fair share of overly-rehearsed back and forth, there is more than a little satisfaction in watching these women interact with each other even though it can feel a little jarring at times. Gunpowder Milkshake Film | Cert: 15 | ★★★✩✩ Review by Linda Marric